Thank you for being here
by Melethril
Summary: Jess and Luke: A tale of family and friendship -  12 separate stories, but occasionally connected with each other
1. All he wants is a quiet evening

_Disclaimer: _Nothing's mine. It's fanfiction.

_Author's Note_: This isn't a multi-chapter story. It's more like a collection of stories with Luke/Jess interaction. I plan to have some cute ones, some funny ones, some angsty ones. There will be some directly taken from the series, others will be completely fictional… Enjoy!

Theoretically _It was oddly good to know…_ belongs to this, too.

There's no limitation to the time-frame and it will not always be sorted chronologically, however mostly it'll be around 2nd and 3rd season.

There will be 12 stories all in all (maybe one more or less).

The whole series is called: **Thank you for being here…**

* * *

**Story 1: All he wants is a quiet evening**

It was 10 pm and Luke was finally able to close up. He was excessively tired for it had been a harsh, very crowded day and of course his nephew hadn't even bothered to show up, while he and Caesar hadn't had a single minute off since 11:00.

Tiredly, almost falling asleep while doing it, he sealed the garbage bags and carried them out of the kitchen.

"Caesar, can you close up behind me? After that you can go home. Thank you very much for your help. Good night!" His sometimes rather chatty aid only nodded, obviously too exhausted to speak.

_Oh… That boy! _

Hadn't Luke been so sleepy he probably would have stormed up into his apartment demanding Jess to dispose of the garbage.

He left the Diner, and since he didn't want a fight with Taylor, – at least not tonight – he decided to walk across the streets to the next possible container. When he walked, he noticed his pace to be unsteady.

It had been a very long day.

As soon as he disposed of the garbage, he walked back, but then stopped dead in his tracks.

He groaned: "No, please!"

He'd just realized that he would have to count the money they'd earned today unless he wanted to risk a complete chaos in his book-keeping.

His pace automatically became a little slower when he realized that, instead of a comfortable bed, he was awaited by book-keeping, an obnoxious nephew and music loud enough to destroy his eardrums causing irreversible damage to his hearing. He sighed tiredly and kept on walking or, to be more precise, staggering. If Miss Patty would see him like this there would be a rumour of him having been drunk the very next day.

He opened the Diner and stumbled towards the counter in order to count the money… When he heard himself chuckle over the fact his thoughts started to rhyme, he realized just how tired he was.

He opened the cash-register, but just when he wanted to take out the money, he discovered a note on top of it.

_Already done. Go to sleep, as will I. _

_Good night._

Below that awfully short note - Caesar must have been very tired – he'd written all the numbers necessary to simply be able to start working the next day.

Caesar had been doing that occasionally for the past few weeks, mostly when they had a tough day and Jess had refused to help (probably only because he felt sorry for him). He'd have to talk to his employee about it for this wasn't exactly one of his tasks. The man definitely deserved a raise.

Slightly more relaxed he walked up the stairs nearly stumbling once when his feet stopped listening to his commands.

He opened the door to his apartment and entered. Jess sat on his bed reading a book completely ignoring him.

Too tired to say anything about it, he walked towards the fridge and took out a beer. He opened the bottle, took off his shoes, put them aside, walked – once again rather stumbled – towards the sofa and laid down. A deep moan escaped him once again when he finally felt his limbs relax. He hadn't truly realized how much they actually hurt. On days like this, all he wanted was a quiet evening…

He didn't even bother to put on the TV for he'd fall asleep any minute, anyway. He took some sips of the beer and closed his eyes for a moment.

A little later, he managed to grasp the mental capacity to note that if he didn't put down the bottle immediately he would spill it. With a slightly squirmy movement he was able to put his beer away without spilling anything.

He felt his breath deepen and his mind wander. Right before he slipped into sleep he noticed a few things that were strange…

He had noticed yesterday evening that the fridge lacked with cold beer when he had taken the last bottle, but hadn't found the time today to refill it today… Somehow there was no music to be heard… That horrible band… Metallica or whatever is was called… It was quiet today.

Somehow it had been a bit cool in the apartment lately, but tonight the temperature was just right.

…Did he just hear Jess saying "Night, Uncle Luke?"

A moment later he knew no more.

When he woke up he noticed that he was still on that couch. His neck hurt terribly. Putting away the blanket (_'Wow, how did I manage to acquire a blanket yesterday? I must have been sleep-walking.'_) and went to the bathroom. Jess didn't even stir when he walked past him.

Twenty minutes later he was in the Diner opening up. He heard the doorbell ring and Caesar entered.

Good, he'd be able to talk to him now.

"Caesar, good morning! Listen, about yesterday…"

Whatever he had expected the expression of complete horror and annoyance wasn't exactly one of the possible scenarios he'd had in mind.

"Oh, no! I knew I shouldn't have left that boy alone. What did he do, Luke?"

At that Luke could simply look at him dumbfounded.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. What do you mean?"

"Well, yesterday. You said I should close up and I was about to, but the moment you left, your nephew came in saying that he'd wait for you to close up and that I should just go home and sleep." He shook his head obviously angry with himself, "I should have known that he was far too nice, but I was so tired. I am sorry, Luke, for whatever prank he played you."

It took the owner of the Diner a short moment before he could regain his composure when everything simply clicked into place.

"No, nothing like that, Caesar. I just wanted to thank you. It was a hard day and I really appreciated your help."

"That's alright, Luke." Then, he looked at his watch seeing it was time to start, "Listen, I'll be in the kitchen."

"Yeah," Luke could only reply, "You do that."

Jess had been helping him…

Suddenly an idea came to his mind and he followed Caesar.

"Hey, could you please write down your address? I must have lost this information somewhere."

His employee only nodded scribbling his address on a piece of paper and handing it over to Luke. Said man left the kitchen and looked at the handwriting: It definitely wasn't the one that had been on the note yesterday, the note he now took out of the cash-register.

Quietly he walked up the stairs and entered the apartment he currently shared with his nephew. Walking over to one of Jess' books he opened it and looked for notes.

He'd seen Jess scribble into one of those not too many evenings ago. That was something the kid seemed to do frequently.

When he found a comment he compared it to the note from yesterday.

It wasn't the same.

"Hm," escaped him causing his nephew to turn around sleepily, but he didn't open his eyes.

Jess definitely knew how to cover his tracks whether to do mischief or something nice. Luke didn't even bother to ask the boy about it later because when he looked at the note he knew that Jess would deny everything probably by accusing him of sleep-walking and having delusions.

Somehow, the smile his lips formed that morning simply didn't want to disappear entirely for the rest of the day.

* * *

I hope, you liked it!

Please read and review

_Next "Chapter": _I need the music on to sleep... (It'll be written in third person despite the title...)


	2. I need the music on to sleep

_Note_: This story was inspired by episode 2.14

**Story 2: I need the music on to sleep…**

The first time he'd done it was at the age of seven…

Liz and her boyfriend Tommy (who was one of those guys coming and leaving at least once a year) were having one of their usual arguments that tended to end up in screaming, yelling, crying and occasionally in violence. As always Jess was sent to his room when the fight started, but he wouldn't leave his mother alone with that man. After refusing to do as he was told, he was shoved into his room and the door closed up behind him. He then heard it being locked up causing him to realize he was trapped. The row seemed to last endlessly and he was desperate enough to simply put his hands on his ears.

It was useless.

He started to hum silently and to his surprise he didn't hear them anymore. After a few minutes he grew tired of humming and listened in order to find out whether they were still fighting….

"_That is the last time I welcomed you to my home! Do you hear me? This is the last time!"_

…They were still screaming…

However, the young boy was tired of sitting on his bed doing nothing but begging for the argument to stop (and Tommy to leave, most especially). He stood up, went over to his small radio and switched it on.

Looking back, it surprised Jess to realize he had forgotten the song that had been playing on the radio. It didn't matter. The sounds of the music had overwhelmed him tuning out the yelling on the other side of the door.

He picked up _Peter Pan_ by James Matthew Barrie intending to read it for the tenth time, a book which always lay right next to his bed.

The words written on the page were devoured by the kid who wanted nothing more than to escape somewhere, anywhere. Only moments later, Jess Mariano found himself in Neverland carried on by the tunes that could be heard from the radio.

Sometime later, he heard the door slam causing him to jump, completely startled. Immediately he went to the door, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard his mother sob.

He hated to hear her cry.

"Mom? Mom, it's okay. He's gone. Let me out, we'll do something else… Keep your mind off things." His mother only cried harder and though he couldn't see her, he knew she must have been trembling.

"Don't cry," he whispered, "please. It's alright. Everything is going to be alright. Just let me out."

Liz didn't seem to have heard. After what seemed like hours but in fact were only a couple of minutes she was still out there (probably in the kitchen) crying and he was still locked in. He then knew she wouldn't let him out. Not tonight.

He felt his own eyes filling with tears, but they wouldn't fall. He felt so useless. He knew how to help his mother when she was in the same room with him, but like this when all he had to console her was his voice? That would not be good enough.

He put on the music to muffle her sobs, so at least he would be able to sleep.

The next few times had been on similar occasions, but it didn't become a habit for a while.

Once (more or less two years later) he came home too late and her freshly-married husband thought it was a good idea to show him that he wasn't the man of the house anymore.

It didn't hurt too much… No marks would be seen the next day. The humiliation of receiving a slap in the face with the open hand however, caused his eyes to moisten. Angrily he slammed the door to his room and put on the music.

Liz had to work late and wasn't home that evening. She would be back at 10 pm.

They never hit him while she was around (and sober, but that was another story to tell). Some of them were rough, yes, but they never hit him. One of them dared once – Michael – and that was the only time he saw Liz protecting him like a lioness her cub. Michael never returned to their home and was thrown out wearing nothing but a T-shirt, slippers and boxer-shorts which was a little cruel since it had been a rather cold December night. Liz was generous enough to throw out the wallet as well, so he could call a cab.

When she wasn't home, though, they were different. They were always different. Some of them could be the nicest, most considerate people in the world when his mother was around, most of them completely changed as soon as he was left alone with them. Not all of them hit him (and those who did always covered their tracks well enough so Liz - who wasn't the most attentive person in the world - wouldn't notice), but most of them acted indifferently to hostile towards him whenever Liz wasn't home. Not that the majority of them were much nicer when she was around, but she never seemed to notice...

Jess should've known that this husband was the same…

As soon as he turned on the radio after the door had loudly been slammed shut, his new stepfather stormed inside of his room.

He should have locked the door.

"_I will not have you disrespecting me, boy! You will have to learn to respect me."_

"_Good luck with that."_

It was the wrong thing to say, but he should've known that. The bruises were very well-placed, though. His mother would never know and he'd never tell.

That night he put on the radio just to forget and to be able to sleep.

Not one year later he had his first CD-Player. By the end of his tenth year of life, he already had his five different songs that made it easier for him to sleep.

After another year he gave up trying to sleep without music. There was always a reason to do it… When there was no yelling there was stress, when there was no stress there was the fear that something might happen.

Only music could tune out the nightmares.

That evening when Luke had his meltdown concerning the lack of space in the apartment because of the multiple of boxes that Liz had finally sent after him, had been an excellent example for how much his life had changed ever since becoming a part of the Stars Hollow community.

(He personally preferred chaotic places since he always swiftly found himself very well-oriented in them enabling him to have several escape routes, although those weren't exactly a necessity anymore).

It had taken him several pieces of clothing scattered over him until he realized his uncle's rambling. At home he could practically hear needles drop as long as the sound didn't belong to the music he listened to. Once, when one of his CDs broke in the middle of the night screeching slightly, he practically jumped out of his bed.

These days, it simply took so much more and he still couldn't fathom why.

Luke then started to babble about being attacked by boxes with arms and being strangled with clothing which would have been amusing hadn't Jess been so tired. When Luke explained that they would move out he truly couldn't understand why. They were fine… more or less.

What did his uncle want, exactly?

_His life back, perhaps? _

That thought scared him a little especially when Luke's sharp "No buts!" interrupted his objection about looking for a new apartment.

He sighed exasperatedly, but more out of being tired than actually annoyed.

"Now, go back to bed!"

What? Did Luke truly believe he would be able to sleep after all the screaming? But how could he possibly explain his weakness to his uncle?

Unsurely he sat on his mattress looking away from the man. This was so embarrassing.

"What?" His uncle was definitely annoyed.

"I need the music on to sleep." He still couldn't look him in the eyes, his voice sounded raspy and tired.

He would laugh at him. Luke surly would mock him. It was embarrassing, really. This was the perfect opportunity to make fun of the oh-so-tough rebellious teenager.

He heard his uncle turn around and timidly looked up. To his surprise he noticed Luke bow and putting his CD player back on without saying a word, the other man just seemed exasperated.

Instantly Jess was able to relax. He should've known… His uncle wasn't like the others.

Being reassured by that thought he laid back and without taking a blanket he just made himself comfortable and fell asleep once again.

He'd expected Luke to tell anybody, somebody. However, even years later nobody said a word and Jess knew that his little secret would be safe.

* * *

Hello, everybody!

That would be the second story. It's very Jess-centric, I know, but I hope you liked it anyway.

I've read so many versions of Jess' homelife... Well, I simply decided to present my own version.

Please read and review. I love reviews. My third chapter is already written and proof-read by my Beta Nymphadora Tonks whom I thank for her help at this point, so if enough reviews come in, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow (in more or less 24 hours)...

Next Chapter: _We fight because I care_ (This one will have much more dialogue than the first two chapters...)


	3. We fight because I care

**Chapter 3: We fight because I care…**

It was 4:00 pm, February 24th, when Lucas "Luke" Danes and his nephew Jess Mariano who both lived in the apartment above Luke's Diner (Stars Hollow, Connecticut) started to analyze whose vocal cords were better trained.

The strange thing was that both of them preferred quietness over noise and not talking at all to senseless discussions. Yet, as always when Jess Mariano's rather bored attitude towards school and life at Stars Hollow in general collided with his genuinely concerned uncle (who was afraid that the boy would wind up in jail sooner much rather than later), their arguments tended to be rather intense.

"Forget it!" The younger man shouted angrily.

"Jess, come on!" Luke Danes said exasperatedly, and though their space in the apartment was limited, the words were followed by the older man chasing his nephew. Their fight had just started and yet their voices had already risen.

"Please," The rebellious teenager's tone was derisive, "if he cannot differ Kerouac from Bukoswski and isn't even able to recite them correctly, he shouldn't be opening his mouth at all."

Luke Danes' eyes widened disbelievingly and if one looked closely also a little puzzled: "Which you told him!"

"Of course." That wasn't sarcastic or derisive. He truly must have said it.

"He's your math teacher, Jess," his tone no longer seemed infuriated but a desperate air slowly found its way in, "You cannot expect him to be perfectly educated in literature."

The younger man opened the fridge and took out a beer which was immediately confiscated by his uncle. A soft sigh escaped the kid's lips and he took out a soda instead. Calmly he opened it and took a sip. He then fixed his temporary guardian with his characteristic focused, intent look, his brown eyes blazing betraying the taciturn boy's intelligence.

"I agree and I told him that."

"You called him a moron," the desperate tone now definitely dominated Luke Danes' voice.

"Which he is!" Jess Mariano retorted immediately his left hand extending rapidly to prove his point.

"Jess!" All despair had left the tone of his voice, only leaving annoyance.

"You cannot possibly ask from me not to say anything when a teacher makes a mistake like this." There it was, that passionate look that one could only see in the boy's face when, first he decided to let his guard down and second he felt the need to defend something he cared about. Discussing literature with his uncle managed to do both.

"You cannot insult him."

"Why not? If I do, he won't forget it this fast, despite the man's minuscule brain which by the way does seem to have a leak somewhere." Although the boy didn't use his tongue all that often, it could be razor-sharp if necessary taking apart anything or anyone that dared to stand in his way.

"Jess!" The owner of Luke's Diner was, as always, unimpressed by his nephew's antics. Oh, the boy could provoke him causing him to lose all patience, but despite the boy's attempts he had never laid hands on his sister's child and despite everything the teenager tried, he simply couldn't bring himself not to care or to give up on him.

"Hey, listen! Yes, he teaches math, but if he dares to use literature to solidify his point or whatever, he should do so correctly and he has to be prepared that somebody will try to drag him out of his comfort zone."

"And you did that by calling him a moron." There it was, the despair had returned.

"No, I did that by asking him if he ever read a book that didn't contain mathematical symbols. He retorted that he'd very well read John Kerouac." The derisive tone was back in the game as well.

"And?" Once again, the older man was puzzled.

"The guy's name is Jack!" The words were spoken indignantly as if forgetting an author's name was a punishable crime.

"So, it was a slip of the tongue."

"No, it wasn't," the younger man's voice dropped slightly now carrying a tone that spoke of annoyance without any real anger. He was stating facts and was frustrated his uncle couldn't simply share his point of view. "He wouldn't even admit that he was wrong."

At that he turned towards the apartment door, but his uncle saw it and immediately blocked the kid's escape route.

"Then you left the classroom." Luke Danes had been informed of this by a rather exasperated Principal later in the afternoon.

"Yes, I went to the library, checking out a book…" The kid started, but he was interrupted.

"You didn't check it out. You simply took it with you."

"I've got that copy, so I would've brought it back," the rebel shrugged off immediately.

"So not the point, Jess."

"Whatever. I walked back in the classroom and showed him the name. Then, instead of admitting that he was wrong, he told me to solve the equation on the blackboard he'd written down while I was gone."

It was clear how much his uncle had to bite down a comment resembling the words 'That is your own fault' since he knew that at this point, it wouldn't have been taken very well.

"Which you refused to do," he decided to say in the end.

"It had three different variables, Luke! To solve that would've taken more space than the blackboard allowed."

For the first time, the older man's annoyance wasn't directed towards his nephew, but the teacher who obviously had wanted to humiliate Jess.

"You could've just tried instead of calling him a moron at the time." Luke Danes knew that they had to get back on topic before he started to agree with his nephew's behaviour in class this afternoon.

"I didn't at that point. I walked back to my seat and sat down," once again stating facts looking straight into his uncle's eyes, not wavering, only a slight sigh escaping his lips.

"And started to read the book you stole."

"Borrowed, and yes, I did."

"You could've tried to solve the equation." Not for the first time ever since his nephew arrived, Luke Danes doubted his parental skills, but he tried anyway.

"Right." The word was stretched by the young man, sounding sarcastic.

"Jess," the name was spoken together with a sigh. There was a moment of silence before he asked: "When exactly did you call him a moron?"

"Nearly at the end of the lesson when he said – in front of the entire class by the way – that math would bring them much further in life than literature." So the teacher had attacked Jess Mariano's main passion, some would even say the only thing he cared about. It didn't surprise his uncle that this had caused an indignant response.

"Then you called him a moron." He was slightly pacified. It wasn't good, obviously, but it was more acceptable then the scenarios that had been forming in his mind the moment he had said goodbye to Principal Merton.

"And that any idiot can solve an equation." Luke Danes didn't agree with the later, but decided not to start that debate with his nephew.

"Then he called the Principal. "

"Yeah."

"And you just left."

"Yes." His tone spoke of slight annoyance.

"Instead of just staying."

"Is this a contest for you to find out how many times I would answer with "Yes"?" The young rebel was now definitely annoyed.

"Jess!"

"What is it you want from me?" If one squinted really hard, they could observe a slight tad of honest puzzlement in the scathing tone of the younger man.

"Just go to school, be mildly polite to your teachers, take your tests and occasionally participate in classes. Is that too much to ask for?"

"Yes."

"Jess!" The middle-aged man was defeated and his tone betrayed his feelings. He didn't seem exasperated, just tired. "Why didn't you just solve the equation?"

"x equals 3, y equals -15 and z equals 23."

"Excuse me?" Luke Dane's eyes widened at the indifferently spoken words of his nephew.

"I solved it. I came in, juggled with the numbers and solved it. So I just went back to my seat and started to read. I knew the answer, that's all math's about."

"You've just said you would have needed more space than the blackboard offered," the bewildered facial expression of one man was met with a slightly amused but all in all bored look from the younger.

"Unless you know the answer."

"Why didn't you just tell him so?"

"Yeah, because it always thrills teachers to know that one of their students is smarter than they are," those words were spoken with profound bitterness as if he'd burnt his fingers years ago and was no longer ready to stick his hand into the fire.

"Had you told him the answer, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You've just proved your smarts to me, but why won't you show them to your teachers?"

"Whatever." The teenager walked towards his bed, picking up a book and took his coat.

"No, Jess! I asked you a question!" Swiftly his nephew slipped past him walking towards the apartment door opening it wide.

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

The door slammed shut and Luke Danes sighed in defeat looking up to the ceiling.

* * *

Thank you sooooo much for the reviews. I loved them.

And as promised, this is the third story, posted 24 hours later :-)

Lomiel: I am sorry, but it's rather short as well... I hope you liked it anyway.

Please read and review ! As I've said before, I do love reviews...

Next Chapter: _A shield written_


	4. A shield written

**Story 4: A shield written**

It was 4:00 pm, and, since no customers were currently at the diner, Luke was standing on a ladder when his nephew entered.

Jess didn't even look slightly interested in what his uncle was doing but simply walked past him, leaving for their apartment without saying a word or offering a hand. Sighing resignedly, Luke grabbed the chalkboard that had been hanging up the wall for several years and cautiously climbed down.

He didn't know why he was careful with the writing, but when he carried the board up the stairs, he did his best not to smear the chalk.

He opened the door thanks to his elbows and entered the newly-renovated apartment. Jess was in his usual relaxed position on his bed, reading.

It was still incomprehensible to him how the boy could read that much. Well, he knew Rory was just as passionate, but Rory at least was eloquently gifted and rather talkative in general. Forcing Jess to say more than a few words was practically like pulling teeth.

Shaking his thoughts aside, he placed the chalkboard on their table in the kitchen and opened one of the wardrobes where he actually did find chalk. He hadn't been sure whether he still possessed any. He grabbed the box and walked near his nephew who didn't look up. Nevertheless, he knew the kid was aware of his presence.

He held the box of chalk in between the book and Jess' face, since the boy would react fastest that way, though not very pleasantly.

"Luke! What the hell?"

"Since you practically refused to help at the diner today, I thought you could help me with this."

Jess looked at the box containing chalk and raised his eyebrows: "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

"Don't be a smartass," he retorted, "Starting tomorrow, we will have a new special at the diner. Someone ordered it today and I simply thought it sounded good," as always when he babbled a little in front of his nephew or people in general, his hands developed a life of their own gesticulating wildly in the air, "In the end I sold it to three other customers. It's three eggs with bits of bacon, cubed tomatoes, Swiss cheese and some oregano."

"Wow, that is interesting!" Jess drawled sarcastically. Half-way through his uncle's explanation his gaze had returned to the book. His enthusiasm was truly breathtaking.

"You are going to write the new special on that chalkboard," he gestured towards the board on the table.

Jess' eyebrows arched up once again though higher than before, the book loosely in his left hand.

"You want me to write "Three eggs with bits of bacon, cubed tomatoes, Swiss cheese and some oregano" on that chalkboard." It was remarkable how a person that always pretended not to pay attention could effortlessly remember anything happening around him, if only the memorizing of a recipe for a new special in a diner.

"No. You'll write _Luke's Special Omelette_ including the prize which is $4.75."

"Luke's Special Omelette?" The mocking tone in his nephew's chuckle could hardly be missed, but Luke decided to ignore it.

"Yes, finish it by tomorrow. I've got to go back to the diner."

He didn't wait for a response because that undoubtedly would have led to an argument.

About an hour later he told Caesar he'd go up because he forgot something, but in fact only wanted to see what the chalkboard now looked like.

When he entered, he saw Jess working on the chalkboard and it caused him to smile approvingly. Just when he went to leave again, he saw out of the corner of his eyes that Jess kept looking between a book and the chalkboard.

He strode forward and was flabbergasted to see that instead of what he'd told him to do there were symbols on the board which he recognized to be Asian calligraphy though unable to tell whether Chinese or Japanese or any other language of the East.

"Jess! What the hell are you doing?" He didn't know whether to scream or laugh, this was so absurd.

"What you told me, Uncle Luke," he said innocently, "Admittedly, I had to improvise, but all in all the sign says what you told me it should. It's just written in Chinese calligraphy."

Luke could only gape for a moment. When he found his voice again, all he could say was: "You speak Chinese?"

Jess only chuckled, shaking his head. He took the book he'd been looking into and closed it, thereby enabling his uncle to see the cover ("_Chinese Writing for Beginners_"). He opened it again and Luke could see he had looked up the word '_special'_.

"Jess!" That boy would drive him insane one day. He just knew it.

"Yes, Uncle Luke?" Once again his nephew's facial expression was one of faked innocence. His trade-mark smirk slowly appeared.

"Do it again, this time without using foreign signs!"

At that he stormed out exasperatedly. He saw Jess amusedly shake his head, obviously pleased with his little prank. Loudly Luke walked down the stairs hoping he'd be able to keep his demeanour cool and friendly around his customers, but when he saw Kirk entering, he knew there was no way he could stay patient while his nerves were being worked on from two sides, one of them doing it purposely, the other oblivious.

After another half an hour, Luke started to worry about his chalkboard again. What if he still didn't do as he'd told him? However, he stayed put.

At six, just when he wanted to go up again, several customers arrived including Lorelai, who seemed to be on coffee-withdrawal and therefore was very chatty until her coffee was ready. She was in a hurry though and left the diner only two minutes later. His head was still ringing from the amount of words leaving her mouth at top-speed and his heart still skipped a beat every time she entered the diner.

Finally, there were only a few people left, and Luke found the opportunity to sneak upstairs. He heard the music from outside the door and sighed, closing his eyes. It was always wonderful to scream his head off to converse with his nephew when said person listened to that terrible music.

He quietly entered because he wanted to see what his nephew was doing, but as always when he didn't want the teenager to notice him, he looked up.

"Uncle Luke!" He said mockingly, standing up with the chalkboard, "I've just finished the assignment you gave me. What do you think?" He sounded enthusiastic which was not a good sign.

Luke knew that whatever would be showed it most definitely wasn't what he'd asked for. He approached his nephew to see what was written on the chalkboard:

_Frittata Speciale Di Luca per $4.75._

"What…?" He was so exasperated he was unable to finish his sentence.

"Well, my name's Italian. I might not be able to speak it, but I just had this urge to explore my roots."

"Go explore something else!" Luke thundered, his tone dropping an octave.

Once again he left only to regret it thirty minutes later:

"Jess, why the hell have you written the price in Pesos?" He was getting desperate, his voice higher than usual, he felt his throat become sore.

"The price is actually correct, you know," Jess simply answered gesturing towards the newspaper that was lying next to the chalkboard.

Luke had to press his hands against his forehead to suppress the headache that had been starting to form.

As calmly as he could he stared at his nephew who looked back at him, the mischievous smirk fully in place: "You are going to write down _Luke's Special Omelette $4.75_ in English with the right currency." Once again he walked out, before he stopped dead in his tracks, opened the door again and said: "legibly written!"

Instead of rolling his eyes his nephew looked up at him with what almost seemed like approval: "Good one, Uncle Luke. You just saved yourself another fit! I am impressed."

"Jess, I swear…"

"Relax," his nephew said, amusement glimmering in his eyes, but the smirk was gone which oddly comforted the older man, "It'll be up before the first customers arrive tomorrow."

Luke couldn't help but look suspicious, but the feeling disappeared immediately when he looked at his nephew: Jess, the hoodlum and rebel, bane of Taylor and all those in love with rules was no longer to be seen…

He'd never seen that kid that was now standing in front of him. For a moment it seemed like Jess had just lowered some of his guard revealing a young boy who was simply pulling a little prank that was meant to be an affectionate gesture. But by lowering his guard just a little, Luke was also able to see insecurity and a deep vulnerability of such intensity he'd never seen before, especially not concerning his obnoxious nephew.

The expression only lasted for the split of a second, but Luke felt his stomach clench.

"You do that," he said roughly and then smiled a little to demonstrate his nephew that it was okay at the same time as he tried to maintain his annoyed facial expression. He must have looked quite strange, because Jess laughed.

Hearing the kid's chuckle made up for every single time he'd ever caused him grief… It was strange because though he'd never heard Jess chuckle it was so… so _Jess_… And that quiet laughter was powerful (for the lack of a better word). It was contagious spreading joy much more easily than most people's. It was a tragedy to know it was so rarely bestowed.

The fact it was him, Luke Danes who had managed to have the kid lowering his defenses a little, if only for a moment, filled him with profound happiness.

"I will." The kid said.

A moment later the emotional walls were back in place.

When Luke went to bed the board wasn't up yet, but he didn't doubt his nephew's words, not the words that had been said with such sincerity.

The next morning the chalkboard was at its usual place as well as his nephew this time of day (which would be called bed). He checked the board twice, noticing that not only had it been made correctly, but neatly. For a guy who did everything with a certain carelessness, his nephew's handwriting was remarkable, neater even than most female's (he didn't dare to point this out to his nephew, though).

When he watched Jess working in the diner later this morning, working fast and with what could not be called a smile but at least a slightly less obvious scowl, Luke was kind of glad he'd let himself be provoked by the kid.

It was only a little prank after all.

* * *

Hello, everybody!

This is the forth story in the series.

I truly hope you like it.

Thanks for all those who review so regularly.

Read and Review! My next chapter is ready, so I could once again offer another update in 24 hours if you're interested.

Oh, another question: I am thinking about a little one-shot with Jess and Sookie because in the show I doubt they ever had such a thing except for that evening in the first episode. Anybody interested?


	5. A Car Crashed

_Note_: inspired by episode 2.19 (Teach me tonight)

**Chapter 5: A car crashed**

Anger coursed through Luke when he quickly left for the small park. Lorelai's words bothered him, ate him up from the inside.

_This is your fault… Rory got hurt…_

His heart pounded in his chest, his head was empty. How could she possibly believe…?

He loved Rory deeply, cared for her like a father would and Lorelai had the audacity to tell him that he had provoked the whole incident.

A feeling other than anger or misery was however what kept him going: Worry. He might not know his nephew as well as he should, but he'd never doubted for a second that Jess cared for Rory, the only person in this town Jess truly talked to.

He knew there was only one place in Stars Hollow Jess would go to when he was stressed: that place at the bridge not far off where he'd pushed him in the lake within the first week he'd arrived here.

When he finally had a clear view of the bridge he saw the miserable figure sitting on it, staring at the water. The smoke of a cigarette floated through the air.

Had he been angrier than worried before, he'd no longer be. It seemed like his nephew punished himself much more cruelly than any other person ever could, including a young mother who would have probably screamed at him, maybe even slapped him.

Luke walked towards his nephew who didn't much more than glance at him only to look in the opposite direction. The kid's hands didn't shake but they seemed unable to remain still, they fingered the cigarette or touched the wood of the bridge.

"I made sure she was okay." He heard the boy's voice break and his heart reached out. Jess seemed so miserable.

"I know you did." He didn't know what more to say.

_It was not your fault. _Luke knew his nephew would never believe that.

He wanted to comfort him, make things easier, but he sucked at this. Not knowing what else to do, he sat down to his nephew's right.

The younger man who seemed more like a boy at the moment couldn't look him in the eyes, his head was turned. It was strange to have Jess avoiding eye contact for it was usually him who sought it.

They both stayed silent for a long while, Luke was completely at loss what to say. There was one question hanging above them both: _What is going to happen now?_

"Sorry, you had a fight with her mom." The words were barely above a whisper, but Luke understood every word. That didn't mean he actually trusted the reliability of his hearing at the moment.

"How do you know…?"

"She isn't fond of me," the kid looked across the lake and sighed a little, "In fact she hates me. I hurt her daughter today. I didn't tell you about the accident, so she must've called you or come to you. The only reason she's not here right now screaming at me is that you two had a fight, otherwise the both of you would have arrived.…"

For a moment, Luke wondered what it had to be like to have a mind that never stopped thinking, analyzing, evaluating. It gave you an advantage in many aspects of life, but in moments like this, after something happened you didn't want to, after you screwed up… That had to be hell.

They were silent again until Jess spoke up: "As soon as I am gone, she'll forgive you."

"Jess, what do you mean?"

Did he really just say what he thought he heard him say?

"I'm going home tonight." Yes, he'd heard him correctly.

"Jess…"

"I hurt somebody, Luke. I never hurt people on purpose, never unless I am attacked or provoked first. Rory…" The voice broke again for the second time this evening. The teenager eyes glittered a little and the intensity of Jess' facial expression when he said the youngest Gilmore's name took Luke aback. It seemed like Dane's men in general seemed to suffer from a certain attachment to the Gilmore girls.

"Jess…" What could he say? Did he want the boy to stay? He wasn't sure.

Jess managed to create mayhem in situations that couldn't possibly result in chaos, having him in the house was emotionally exhausting since it wasn't easy to take care of an angry kid. Jess' insight in human interaction didn't help much either, for he was unable to keep his mouth shut when necessary. Then there were the pranks, the vandalizing, the fights (_'I never hurt people on purpose_.' – _Yeah, sure Jess, tell that to the kids you've hit_)… Jess didn't like living here in Stars Hollow, he emphasized that sentiment every other day.

So, maybe it was for the best if he just left, if he just went home.

Then he thought of that teenager he'd become accustomed to… The young man who read more than any other person he'd ever seen, the kid that needed the music on to sleep, his nephew who occasionally was incredibly considerate and never once wanted credit for that...

Suddenly he realized just how much Jess had become a part of his everyday life. He knew without a doubt he'd miss him.

"I'll take the next bus possible." With those words Jess stood up and then waited for his uncle to do the same.

"You sure?"

A bitter laugh escaped the rebel's throat before he could suppress it: "It's either that or I am going to be lynched by dawn."

If the words ever were meant to be funny, the disillusioned tone of Jess' voice destroyed that impression.

All Luke could do was nod a little. It was the sensible decision. That didn't mean the choice didn't hurt.

They walked back to the diner without saying a word. Only a couple of yards before the entrance Luke noticed that Jess had stopped. He looked back, but couldn't see and therefore not interpret the facial expression because his nephew's face was hidden by the darkness.

Was this the last time the kid would ever enter his diner? He still remembered the first day Jess had arrived here.

_Huh_…

Such a simple word, it wasn't even a word really, an exclamation more like, but over the past few months Luke had learnt that coming from his nephew it could have very different meanings.

_Huh_… _I am not interested in a word you say, so why don't just choose not to speak at all?_

_Huh…I've listened to you, but I do not entirely agree, however I will not share my thoughts with you on this subject._

_Huh… Okay, I am genuinely interested. You got me thinking and that means something because hardly anybody ever does._

_Huh… It's funny, I admit it, but you have not yet managed to make me laugh._

_Huh… You got me, but I will be damned before I admit that._

Conversing with a monosyllabic Jess was communication on a very high level if you knew how to read the tons of subtext he managed to build into a single word. And Luke wasn't exactly an expert on that area, in fact he probably could count on one hand the situations where he'd interpreted and reacted properly, but he'd learnt some things:

For example, '_okay' _wasanother word frequently used by his nephew. The meaning of it couldn't divide more…

_Okay… Sure, why not? It's a deal._

_Okay… You know what, it's fine. It doesn't hurt that much… Who am I kidding? It kills me, but it's easier for you, so do it._

_Okay… Whatever. I don't care… Actually I do… No, I don't… Whatever._

_Okay… I'd love that._

_Okay… I'm ready to do whatever it takes. This is important to me._

_Okay… Fine, if you want me to. I'll do it._

In fact there was hardly ever an _okay_ coming from Jess completely deprived of all emotion. It was probably the only word he was unable to speak indifferently.

"Luke?" Jess' voice got him back to reality. He shook his head a little to shake off his train of thoughts and followed his nephew who walked up the stairs towards the apartment which he entered and then immediately got his bag to start packing.

He'd always thought that Jess hadn't really travelled much before coming here, but when he saw the routine with which the younger man packed Luke came to realize that he knew his nephew even less than he'd thought.

Only ten minutes later Jess shouldered his bag and looked at Luke, his face was impassive. It was impossible to see what the kid felt at the moment.

"Will you send my stuff back?"

Luke nodded.

"So…" He looked at his nephew expectedly, but all he received was that unwavering, calculating gaze he'd dealt with a hundred times before, especially in their first few weeks living together.

"I'll walk you to the bus station." He hated it when the kid didn't react.

He was _not_ sending him away. Jess wanted to do so; he'd chosen to do so!

They didn't exchange a single word when walking across the streets. Not long after arriving at the station the next bus arrived. Jess looked at his uncle again.

"Well, then… Jess. Bye. Travel safely."

His nephew simply nodded in response not bothering to say goodbye.

"I'll call you."

At that he received a reaction albeit not the one he'd hoped for. Jess stared at him for a moment incredulously even shaking his head slightly as if he'd heard that sentence before without them ever coming true.

The doors opened and Jess entered the bus, however just before they closed he turned around and said: "Night, Uncle Luke."

Luke had heard that one before, but he couldn't really place it. Additionally there was something in his nephew's tone when he said _Uncle_… There was no sarcasm, but he didn't know what else it could be.

Before he could say anything else, the doors closed and he saw Jess walking to the seats at the end of the bus. He sat down and picked up a book starting to read. He didn't look up from it when the bus drove away, he'd never see his uncle lift his hand to say goodbye.

Later when Luke entered the apartment, it was too large and empty. He walked over to Jess' part of the room and sighed a little.

He couldn't stay here, he couldn't open up the diner the next day as if nothing had happened… as if she hadn't screamed at him accusing him of not caring for Rory, as if he hadn't just said goodbye to his nephew whom he probably wouldn't see in a long while, as if there hadn't been an accident.

He couldn't stay and he wouldn't. With that thought he started packing for a fishing trip. He hadn't gone fishing in a long while.

It would be a good distraction.

* * *

Thank you so much for the nice reviews you've written!

Special thanks to Nymphadora Potter, my Beta who's so nice to read all the crazy stuff I write :-)

Next Chapter: _It's been a year... _(the most imortant story; sad)


	6. It's been a year

_Warning_: Suicide themes

_Note_: This is a very important chapter to me and one that is completely fictional. In this chapter you find out why Jess came to Stars Hollow in the first place. There are hundreds of theories around and this one is mine (I've several theories myself).

I had this idea a couple weeks ago and my story _First impressions_ implied this a little as well.

This piece will be the most angsty one in this series.

**Story 6: It's been a year…**

Summer break had started and Jess was not back for two weeks when he slowly grew moodier every day. At first he had truly been giving an effort, but only a couple of days later the taciturn teenager was back full force, stronger than ever before. Today, for example, he had snapped at three different customers or hadn't talked at all and that behaviour slowly began to work on Luke's nerves.

The kid clearly missed Rory who'd gone to Washington for the summer, but he and Jess had an agreement and today he'd remind the kid of his promise and the obligations he had if he wanted to stay in Stars Hollow.

As soon as the mass of people entering the diner lessened a little, he gestured his nephew to get upstairs.

Jess only looked at him sharply, obviously trying to assess his uncle's mood. His own facial expression was unreadable when he turned around and went upstairs.

"Jess," Luke said as soon as they entered the apartment, "We had an agreement. You cannot behave the way you do at the moment. You promised me that things would change."

Jess ignored the comment: "I am going to New York."

"What? Jess, you just arrived here, you can't just…"

"Just for tomorrow, I'll be back tomorrow night or the day after. Don't worry."

It seemed as if Rory was truly the only thing keeping Jess in Stars Hollow if he wanted to go back to New York so soon.

"Look," Luke tried to sound sympathetic, but his tone was all wrong, even to his own ears, "I know you miss Rory, but…"

Irritably Jess looked at him… He should have said things much more diplomatically.

"This has nothing to do with her. I just have to go back. In fact, I'll leave now."

_Right. This has nothing to do with Rory at all._

"Jess, you can't just leave." This whole conversation was absurd. What was going on with the kid?

"I forgot that there was something I had to do," Jess said, his voice seemed strained and the moment the words left his mouth, Luke saw him flinch a little and looked at him in disbelief: "I forgot."

Luke had never seen the expression on his nephew's face nor heard the tone in Jess' voice. He seemed to be profoundly shaken by the fact he'd forgotten something in New York.

The older man couldn't help but wonder what it was.

Luke continued to look at the teenager while said person started to pack his things once again, but this time the bag wasn't even half-full. It seemed as if he'd stay true to his word and not leave for good but simply for a short while.

"See you tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow, Luke," Jess said shouldering his bag.

"Wait, Jess! You can't just… Where are you going to stay?"

"At home." At that the door slammed behind him leaving Luke alone in the apartment.

What was that? Where was he going?

For a moment he had the urge to call Lorelai asking her for advice, but immediately decided against it when he remembered the fight they had. She'd hurt him by saying he didn't care enough for Rory or the town. He couldn't go to her, especially not when it concerned Jess whom she seemed to despise with passion.

Minutes passed before he came to decide that he couldn't just let Jess leave, not without a proper explanation. He descended the stairs, left the diner and strode towards the bus station only to see his nephew drive away once again. He could see him on his 'usual' seat at the back of the bus, but unlike last time he didn't seem to read anything. Jess simply stared into space.

Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong with that kid.

Once again the urge to ask Lorelai was overwhelming only to be crushed with reality. Defeated he walked back towards the diner closing it two hours earlier than usual.

He was unable to sleep that night for that unreadable look on Jess' face was haunting him.

_I forgot_.

What? What had he forgotten? What could be so important that the kid would leave so urgently?

With the things Jess didn't tell him books could be filled, but this time he couldn't bear not to know. When his nephew had decided to come back, he'd officially become his guardian (the legal aspect was still to be discussed, but for them this had been the turning point.). Last time it had been Liz's call, but this time it was Jess' choice.

He wouldn't back down. He'd find out what was going on. Tomorrow, he'd take his car and drive to New York, he'd go and find his nephew.

When that decision was final, he fell into a peaceful slumber.

That slumber, however, wasn't meant to be permanent, for his subconscious seemed to find pleasure in working out scenarios that had caused Jess to go back home.

_Before Jess came here for the first time, he had made a girl pregnant. A little Jess was now running across the streets of New York. He'd never checked up on the mother or his child, because he'd forgotten about it…_

_He was indebted to some guy and had forgotten to pay him back…_

_He dealt with something illegal (presumably drugs) and now had some very angry customers…_

_He'd forgotten to tell Liz he'd gone back to Luke's and was now feeling bad about it (Unfortunately, the most harmless scenario was also an impossibility since he'd called Liz the same day Jess had arrived to make sure his sister knew of her son's current location.)_

The moment he dreamt of Jess' possible whereabouts (motionless in a dark alley), Luke jumped out of bed only to see that it was 6:30am. Immediately he packed up some stuff including five hundred dollars in cash just in case he had to bribe somebody.

He rushed down, and just when he wanted to step outside, he remembered that his bag was still in his apartment forcing him to run back upstairs to retrieve it cursing his lack of brains all the way.

Every minute counted. He had to go before his nephew got into trouble which he undoubtedly already was.

He opened his truck, got in and drove away.

Oh, he hated New York. It was too noisy, too busy and it stunk terribly, and today everything was even worse due to high temperatures. The sun burnt from the sky. To drive here was only possible when one had a death-wish. He decided to park as soon as he found a parking space where the car wasn't in too much danger of being stolen.

His impatience increased when he noticed that he'd driven around for an hour looking for an adequate spot. It took all of his self-control to not just park it right where he was.

Finally, he found an adequate parking space only to find out that he was fifteen blocks away from his sister's address.

He'd never visited her ever since she'd moved five years ago (if at all, she came to visit him or they met at a Café in the city), so he couldn't even tell what the neighbourhood looked like, but judging by what he'd heard from different sides it wouldn't be the most prestigious of places.

More than the city above ground he hated the subway which was even dirtier and more crowded than the streets themselves, but nothing would lead around this, which was why he chose to just go along with it.

He wasn't here for his own pleasure. He wanted to make sure the kid was okay.

He breathed in deeply after he was finally able to leave the subway and by that he meant the homeless man sitting next to him who hadn't seemed to have had a shower in a very long time. Nevertheless, he'd forgotten that New York above ground didn't exactly smell like roses either. He coughed a little and sighed.

That was when he looked up to see the street name. Liz and Jess lived a hundred yards from here.

When he finally arrived at the place he couldn't help but stare. Judging by the amount of times his sister had called him crying about boyfriends and husbands leaving and taking along anything that wasn't solidly connected with the walls, he knew she wasn't exactly rich, but seeing the block in which they lived, he seriously had to wonder why on earth Jess didn't want to live in Stars Hollow.

It was definitely one of the poorer neighbourhoods and probably one with quite a bad reputation. The smell of garbage offended his nose and the block seemed to look as if it was in desperate need of restoration. Shaking his head he walked in front of that building which contained his sister's apartment.

He saw his sister's name on the list right next to the entrance door and rang her bell, but nobody answered. He tried again hoping that at least one of them was home.

"She ain't gonna open up," a voice drawled behind him. Swiftly he turned around to see a young, tall and strongly-built man looking at him suspiciously.

"I'm sorry?"

"Miss Danes never answers the doorbell." The kid's eyes didn't waver for one moment staring him straight in the eyes obviously trying to figure out what he wanted from Liz. He held his gaze since as intense as the younger man looked, it was nothing compared to what his nephew was capable of.

"She's my sister. My name's Luke Danes. I simply need to talk to her, that's all."

When he said his name, the teenager relaxed instantly.

"Y'are Jess' uncle?"

"Yes," a little relieved that the teenager in front of him knew Jess only to be worried a moment later: Save for Rory, Jess hadn't made any friends in Stars Hollow and he had lived there for ten months (expect for that time after the car accident).

To his surprise the other teenager started to smile openheartedly: "Nice ta meetcha, Sir. He ain't talkin' much, but ya earned his trust over the year. It's a rare thing, ya know. Jess usually ain't very fonda guy authority."

It took Luke a moment before he truly understood what the kid had told him, but when he did, he returned the smile.

"Are you a friend of his?"

"Been his neighbour for five years, so I know'im. We respect each other. Sometimes we hung out, but Jess ain't friends with many. He's loyal, though. Them who are his friends are lucky bastards, that's for sure."

Luke nodded and then said: "Can you let me in? I just want to see him. He left Stars Hollow yesterday." He added just in case the kid knew of his nephew's latest move back to Stars Hollow.

Once again he was being evaluated and obviously deemed trustworthy. The teenager opened the door, turned around but didn't walk away before saying: "Hope I'll see ya once again, Mr. Danes."

Luke walked up the staircase since the elevator was broken (he wondered if it had worked when they'd moved here) and stepped out on the third floor. He walked towards the number his sister had told him years ago and knocked.

At first there was nothing, so he decided to knock with a little more force.

"I'm coming!" His sister's hoarse voice sounded shrill when she screamed so loudly. The door was ripped open and revealed his baby sister.

She was pale as if she hadn't slept very well, dark circles surrounded her eyes and the clothes she wore hadn't been washed in two weeks. She was frighteningly thin, too. Her whole appearance scared him.

This couldn't possibly be his little sister. This was an old woman.

When she recognized him, she smiled wildly and genuinely, immediately looking ten years younger.

"Luke! Big brother! That's a surprise. What are you doing here? I am sorry for my appearance. It got rather late yesterday and wild if you know what I mean."

He didn't really want to know what she meant which was why he was eager not to encourage her further.

"I am here because of Jess. Is he alright?"

"Shouldn't you know this better than I do? I mean, he lives with you right now."

"What? Didn't he come here yesterday? He said he had business in New York. I was worried, but I thought that he came here at least." The worry he'd felt yesterday was nothing compared to what he felt now. He was agitated and terrified.

"Big brother, relax," his sister said calmly, "Jess knows the city better than you do, believe me. He knows it even better than I do. He'll be fine. Don't worry."

How could Liz stay so calm about this? Had it been Rory whom he was supposed to take care of and now lost, Lorelai would have probably killed him by now.

Before he thought too much about a certain blue-eyed woman he asked: "Do you know what he came here for?"

She looked at him, furrowing her eyebrows a little, obviously thinking: "No, I have no idea. But, Luke: Go back to Stars Hollow. Jess takes off sometimes, but he always comes back, especially when he said he would."

Her carelessness angered him. His nephew could be doing who-knows-what, he could be in serious danger, but she simply shrugged it off as if it was nothing. To avoid a fight with his sister he apologized for the intrusion and told her he'd go home right away (despite the fact he wouldn't until he knew that Jess was safe).

"Anytime, big brother! See you," with those words she gave him a kiss and closed the apartment door behind her.

All he could do was gape at the door. He wondered if next time she called, he'd even bother trying to animate his nephew to answer the phone. It angered him how little she'd been affected by this situation.

"Are you Luke Danes?" A short, slightly corpulent woman had opened her apartment door which was right next to Liz's. She smiled at him affectionately and by doing that openly displayed her good-natured demeanour. She reminded him strongly of Sookie.

"Yes," he said wondering what she knew.

"I am Sophie Harper, your sister and nephew's neighbour. Please, come in."

Confused, and not knowing what else to do, he followed her.

The apartment was small but seemingly clean. There was a kitchen which was directly connected to what could be called a living room with a sofa, a small table with two chairs and a TV, the only two doors of the apartment were open and revealed a small bedroom and the bathroom, altogether rather small but remarkably cosy.

"Please, sit down," she said gesturing towards the table.

Awkwardly he did as he was told and then looked at her, showing his confusion. She didn't seem to notice, walked to the tiny fridge and took out some water. After grabbing two glasses she approached him.

"Jess told me about you. You've made quite an impression on him," she smiled while saying this thereby implying that whatever his nephew had said, it must have been good. Although he'd already heard this from the kid outside the building, it did surprise him.

It seemed as if Jess was much more talkative here than in Stars Hollow.

"He's not that much of a talker, but he's a good kid. Extraordinarily smart and considerate. He keeps surprising me," she smiled fondly and Luke couldn't help but return it. It was good to meet somebody who appreciated Jess other than the hostility they had to deal with in Stars Hollow. The boy's sarcasm could be painful and the regular arguments draining, but he thought of Jess being a good kid at heart, too.

"He sometimes sleeps here when things are a little tense or when Liz wants to have some time on her own," she frowned a little when saying his sister's name and by doing so demonstrated clearly whom she valued more.

He frowned a little as well. _Tense? What does she mean by this?_

"He didn't tell you where he went, or did I misunderstand something?"

"You heard me correctly. I have no idea where he could be."

Now it was her turn to look confused: "It's been a year today, Mr. Danes. Of course he's visiting Mark." Her tone was forceful and a little scolding as if something like this should not be forgotten. Unfortunately, he had not the slightest clue what she was talking about.

"Mark?"

Her eyes widened. Understanding dawned.

"He never told you. She never told you," she whispered, the first sentence was said in deep sorrow, the other in anger.

"What? What didn't they tell me?" He was getting desperate. Jess was off with god-only-knows whom and he was sitting in front of that woman who decided to speak in riddles.

"It's not my place to…"

"You know my sister and you know my nephew. She didn't tell me and probably won't and getting more than one full sentence out of my nephew is nearly impossible unless he's talking about some book. Jess is off with some guy and I am worried. What is going on?" He was irritated and sounded dangerous to his own ears, but surprisingly that woman whom he had evaluated to be a rather soft person didn't even flinch.

_She lives in this kind of neighbourhood. What the hell did you expect?_

She seemed to ponder whether or not to tell him. When she sighed, he knew he'd finally find out where Jess had gone to.

"It's best if I start from the beginning, though I must say that I have not seen this myself since they've only been living here for the past five years, however," she breathed in, obviously gathering her strength, "When Jess was five years old, another family moved in right next to their apartment, a young couple and their son who was his age. His name was Mark and it was friendship at first sight if you want to say so. Mark was an equally quiet boy and highly intelligent for his age which was why Jess grew fond of him quickly. Both were smart, but in very different ways: Jess, albeit young, was already life-experienced and quick-witted while Mark was gifted with numbers but unable to deal with everyday-life without guidance." She stopped and smiled affectionately, but deep sorrow clouded her bright eyes.

"Jess once told me that Mark was the only person he'd ever met who was significantly smarter than himself. Mark's IQ was indeed skyrocketing and later, when they went to primary school, the teachers found out that his skills in math are on genius-level. Nevertheless, Mark didn't deal with change very well, which was why he was taken under Jess' wing from day one after they'd become neighbours since your nephew is able to fit into every environment," for a moment she stopped before adding with a short giggle, "if he chooses to do so, that is."

She sighed. Luke didn't move his eyes off her, taking in everything he heard.

"When it was time for them to go to school their friendship grew even stronger, both enjoying the fact of having met somebody their age who _just got things_, to say it in Jess' words. They were hardly ever seen alone neither when they were in primary school nor when they went to high school later. When Liz and Jess moved, Mark insisted on moving somewhere near Jess, which is remarkable because Mark had severe issues when he had to deal with changes of location. This was also the reason why he never entered a private school despite having been recruited by several prestigious ones."

Luke suddenly had a foreboding feeling. If they were this inseparable, why had this Mark never visited? He remembered Jess screaming at him in their first week living together:

'_You take me away from my home, my friends and now you're asking what from me?'_

She seemed to have noticed his musings because she continued: "When they were in high school later they met Sylvia and Christopher whom they befriended rather quickly. Chris is a tall guy with a certain love for literature and of very realistic nature therefore got along with Jess rather quickly. Sylvie was the hopeless romantic of the four of them and she and Mark got pretty close. Jess practically adopted her as a little sister. Believe me, when Sylvie and Mark started dating one and a half years ago, Jess was rather torn because he cared for them both but was afraid to lose either in case things didn't work out."

Hearing this caused Luke to wonder: _Who is Jess? I don't know my own nephew._

"He's no saint," she said, obviously having guessed what was going on in his mind, "as I said, he was very mature very early in life, but also," she sighed a little, "I don't know him as well as I want to though better than most. Let's just say that when Jess moved here he was already able to pick any kind of lock, was already cynical and taciturn to a certain point especially around strangers. It took me six months before he as much as talked to me. There were fights at school though I must say it was mostly in order to stand up for his friends."

"What happened?" Something must have happened.

Sophie looked at him sadly: "Precisely one year ago, Jess and Mark had planned to spend the afternoon in the Central Park. That is special because they usually went to Washington Square Park."

"And Mark doesn't like change, so…" Luke got the idea.

"Exactly. Jess had agreed to pick him up, just in case Mark changed his mind last minute. He'd received a key from Mark's parents who are very hard-working people and appreciated Jess' help more than he'll ever know. When he entered the apartment…" She swallowed, tears appeared in her eyes, her voice broke, "he found Mark lying on his bed, his wrists sliced open with a kitchen knife."

A silent sob escaped her: "Jess got help as soon as he could, but it was too late. Next to Mark there were four goodbye letters, one for each of his friends and one for his parents. I am pretty sure that the letter Mark wrote for Jess is one of those few things he refuses read."

Luke didn't know what to say. Hell, he didn't know what to feel.

"After that, something died in Jess. He got into fights every other day, he'd smoked before but he started to do so much more regularly, he'd drunk alcohol before but now it happened more often. The only people he kept talking to were Sylvie and Chris, but Jess was the anchor of the group, so when he was with them he had to be the strong one, had to hold Sylvie and comfort her and had to drag Chris out of the dark place he was in. Unfortunately, by doing so his own demeanour grew darker and he became much more cynical and taciturn than ever before. He completely shut down. Liz couldn't or wouldn't deal with it, so in the end she decided to send him to you. Oh, I've never heard him scream so much as the day she told him he had to leave New York."

Luke swallowed and stared at Sophie. He had been oblivious.

His nephew definitely knew how to hide his emotions even if they ate him up from the inside.

Guilt coursed through him when he realized that within the ten months the young man had been living in his home, he'd never asked him what had caused Liz to send him here.

"You did well with him," she said, once again picking up on his mood, "When he came back, he looked much better. He felt terrible about the accident with that girl, but he looked much better."

"How do you…?"

"Mr. Danes, you forget that I've known your nephew for five years," she laughed, "if I am capable of knowing what is going through his mind, I am fairly sure to understand your thoughts." She smiled sadly at that.

"Ma'am, thank you for telling me this, but I think it is time for me to go."

He stood up, then decided to ask: "Where have they buried him?"

Nodding approvingly she told him the address and said: "Goodbye, Mr. Danes. I'll see you again."

"It's Luke and yes, I think we will meet again."

Thirty minutes later he stood in front of a cemetery feeling terrible. The sun was bright, mocking him and all those here. He looked around trying to find his nephew. He walked across the lane and looked to his left and right trying to find a teenager mourning for his best friend.

There he was, not more than fifty yards to his left. He stood there motionless, his head was bowed a little…How the kid could still wear a jacket in this heat was mystery to him…

Quickly and quietly he approached his nephew who noticed his presence when he was only ten feet away from him. He couldn't tell whether or not Jess had somehow registered it was him, but when he turned around to face his uncle there was nothing that would indicate his surprise.

Jess' face was dry, but his eyes shone sadly, broken, obviously too tired to hide his feelings behind that mask he usually wore all the time.

Luke decided to say the only thing he could think about since he'd heard of his nephew's loss.

"I am sorry I never bothered to ask."

"I would've never told you."

The words were spoken quietly and sincerely.

They were wrong, the whole bunch of them: Taylor, Dean, Lorelai, every citizen in Stars Hollow save for Rory. Jess wasn't a hooligan, he wasn't a criminal, he wasn't a punk.

Jess was a good kid, somebody simply had to keep reminding him of that.

* * *

Well, what do you think? I'd really love some reviews for that chapter...

Thanks to all those regular reviewers... You guys are great! Your reviews mean a lot to me and inspire me.


	7. What goes around comes back around

_Note_: Summer between 2nd and 3rd; before Jess is seeing Shane

**Story 7: What goes around comes back around…**

This summer was very hot. Luke Danes almost gave up serving warm food for lunch, instead he thought about telling his customers to come when the sun had gone down.

Today, the air in the diner was almost suffocating especially because the air-conditioner started to make troubles. For the customers it wasn't as bad as for the owner because they only stayed inside for a few minutes. In fact, this day he'd sold more food to go than ever in his entire career. The diner itself was empty since nobody seemed to be capable of bearing the heat for a longer period of time.

Because of the circumstances he'd sent Caesar home and would have dismissed his nephew Jess as well had he bothered to show up in the first place.

When Luke had the sudden feeling of not being able to breath properly anymore he opened the entrance door to get at least some fresh air (though the air outside was just as hot as it was inside of the building).

The curtain was pushed aside and the nephew strolled into the diner. He looked around the empty space before he looked at his uncle. His trademark smirk which was slightly crooked adorned his face, the brown eyes brightened in amusement.

"Some crowd here, today. What do you think, Uncle Luke?"

Five weeks ago said uncle had received very important knowledge concerning Jess' past. However, it only took him a week after that encounter in New York to realize that nothing had changed. Jess was still Jess, still snarky and a tad cynical, still "up to no good" in a rather charming way. The only thing that had changed was Luke's view of his nephew.

He had tried speaking to the younger man about what happened that day only to be taken apart verbally. Luke had known of his nephew's exceptionally sharp tongue before, had actually been on the other side of an attack more than once, but he hadn't been aware just how deadly Jess' verbal attacks could be. The words still rang loudly in his ears after a month of having heard them:

"_What do you want from me? Ten months, Luke! I lived in your house for ten months and not once you asked. What did Liz say about me coming, huh? That I was dealing with the wrong crowd? I came here and I knew you didn't want me here, I realized it the second I saw you. You thought that I was trouble, hell everybody in this town thought so, especially your dear Lorelai Gilmore."_

_Jess' eyes shone so dark in the dimly lightened apartment, they almost seemed black. He nearly hissed his next words: "Why did you follow me anyway, Luke? What did you think? That I was on drugs or deal with drugs and now have some seriously pissed customers or did you think I was as much of an asshole as my father and would abandon a pregnant girl only to feel remorse ten months later?"_

_The fact he'd truly assumed something like this made those words just so much worse._

"_Had you bothered to show up in our apartment in New York just once, you'd have heard of him, but you didn't, Luke! You give me those great speeches about how important family is, however you've hardly ever talked to me even though you and Liz had regular contact. Very early in life, my friends became family and when Mark died I became an orphan. That's the whole story and there is nothing more I have to say about this."_

He knew he had neglected Jess to a certain point in the kid's early life and to say that he couldn't deal well with children was not an acceptable option despite the fact that this was the main reason why he had avoided meeting his sister's kid. He couldn't reply anything and Jess simply walked away that evening.

His words had hurt terribly and he couldn't really talk to Jess for days after that. His nephew on the other hand seemed to have a bad conscience: He didn't say anything, but a few days later (after he'd cooled off a little) his work at the diner improved immensely, he regularly helped closing up and he didn't play any tricks on his uncle.

By now, it was the same routine that had existed before the visit in New York and both Luke and Jess were grateful for it.

Yet the older man liked to believe they were a little closer than before these days. When he suddenly saw a cool soda on the counter, he was quite sure of it.

That closeness didn't mean they had a lot of heart-to-heart conversations, or conversations at all. It was just a feeling.

Luke felt very protective of his nephew these days, especially when it concerned Taylor who seemed to have a personal vendetta against the Danes' men, especially the younger of the two.

Speaking of the mayor, just a moment after Luke opened his soda, said man entered the diner.

"Luke," the tone already indicated that Luke had somehow managed to break one of the hundreds of crazy rules that existed in this town.

"Yes, Taylor," he was already annoyed although he didn't even know yet what it was about.

"Those windows of yours, I've never liked them much and decided to check their size. They are two inches too long and one inch too high. You'll have to change this."

Luke had heard a lot of crazy ideas coming from that guy over the years, but this definitely belonged to the top-five of _the Crazy, Narrow-Minded Ideas by Talyor_.

"Come on, Taylor! These windows have been here for ages! You cannot possibly ask from me to make them smaller. How exactly do you imagine this, anyway? It's only three inches all in all."

"Luke, I am sorry," he definitely didn't sound like it, he looked more like a dictator who wanted to emphasize his power, "but this is the law and you should have thought about this sooner."

It was simply too hot for Luke to remain patient. He made fists, pressing his nails into his palms, his eyes blazed with anger. Before he could say anything though, Jess interfered speaking in a bored tone:

"Have we done anything to offend you, Mr Doose, or is there another reason why you currently stand in the hottest place of Stars Hollow - due to a malfunctioning air-conditioner - aggravating my uncle instead of being somewhere cooler? Literally and not figuratively spoken, of course, since in order to find a cool place you would definitely have to leave town."

Taylor Doose's eyes glimmered vindictively: "Well, funny you should ask. It has come to my knowledge that you spend several hours sitting on the bridge in the park."

"I didn't know it was necessary to make reservations first." The indifferent tone of his nephew remained aiming to anger the owner of the small supermarket.

Taylor pressed his lips together, but that glimmer of shier satisfaction still didn't leave his eyes: "The bridge has been in need of reparations for years and finally there is enough money to actually do them. However, when it was looked at, they have discovered significant damage." At that, he looked at Jess reproachfully who simply lifted his eyebrows in return.

"I didn't do anything to that bridge. I simply sat on it reading, that's all." His uncle didn't doubt the sincerity since it seemed to be one of Jess' favourite spots in Stars Hollow, as far as 'favourite' and 'Stars Hollow' could be mentioned in one sentence concerning his nephew.

"Anyway, the damage inflicted upon this bridge is irreparable which is why it was decided to take it down completely in order to build a new one. The construction will probably last for the rest of the summer." Like some predator he watched Jess' reaction whose face seemed to have lost some colour. Otherwise he remained rather composed obviously having caught up on Taylor's wish to infuriate him.

"Is this really necessary, Taylor?" Luke decided it was time to step in before his nephew said or did something regrettable, "I mean, hardly anybody ever walks over that bridge and it has been holding quite well so far. Why don't you wait some weeks?" The _'until school starts'_ he decided not to voice out loud.

"Well, your nephew sits on it quite a lot. Aren't you afraid that he might fall in the lake?"

"Right," Jess interjected sarcastically, "Even if I weren't able to swim, it's impossible to drown in there. The most terrible thing that could happen to me is an attack by a swan that happens to swim close by when I fall in."

"Well, it is necessary and it should be done." Taylor said. He didn't even try to hide the triumphant smile since he had managed to collect a victory against the would-be criminal Jess Mariano. Said person had problems keeping his cool demeanour. It was clear to Luke that the prospect of not being able to spend his free hours on that bridge wasn't an endearing thought to his nephew.

"Come on, Taylor! This is crazy. Can you even tear the bridge down without the approval of the citizens?"

"Well, there's that, but it will discussed at tonight's town meeting," Taylor practically oozed with satisfaction. Jess had managed to aggravate almost every single citizen in this town and it was therefore highly unlikely that anybody would jump in for his defence. "Your windows will also be discussed, of course." Before Luke or Jess could retort anything, Taylor was practically out of the diner.

Jess grabbed his forehead sighing.

"Well," he said, "at least, they will leave you alone." When he looked at his uncle he seemed controlled, but his eyes glimmered sadly. It was strange to see Jess attached to a specific place, but that bridge truly seemed to be some sort of sanctuary.

Jess' smirk wasn't genuine when he spoke up again: "I think I'll go to the bridge to read before it's gone." At that he turned and left the diner as well.

Luke was furious. Taylor had given Jess a hard time ever since he'd arrived in Stars Hollow. True, Jess did play his pranks, but he never hurt anybody by doing those. All the owner of Doose's market had to do was loosen up a little bit and things with Jess didn't look as grim. On the other hand, what Taylor initiated now would hurt his nephew (and deliberately so), but unfortunately there wasn't much he could do about it.

Jess was right. They'd leave him alone tonight, but the bridge was as good as gone since the teenager was the only one regularly using it.

Well, he wouldn't let Taylor get out of this unscathed. If he wanted to go into war with Jess, he'd have to realize that the kid wasn't alone. Nevertheless, the heat made it hard for him to think and his anger didn't exactly help his thinking process.

In the spur of the moment, he went upstairs, grabbed his toolbox and left the diner. He then locked the door and attached a piece of paper to it which said '_will be back by 6:00pm'_.

Along with his toolbox he made his way towards Taylor's car. When he was finally there though, he realized he didn't really know what to do with the car that wouldn't have dangerous consequences.

"You know, pranks and crimes are best committed in the middle of the night and not in broad daylight."

Luke flinched and turned around only to see his amused nephew lazily leaning against the wall of a building.

"What have you planned to do anyway? Loosening a wheel can be quite dangerous for the owner of the car, you know."

"Well, actually I…" He didn't really know what to say without sounding like a complete moron.

"…Have no idea what you're doing."

"He is trying to annoy you," was all he could say.

This caused the ghost of a real smile to appear on Jess' face. He seemed a little younger for a moment.

"And managed to annoy you," Jess simply retorted.

"Tell me this doesn't bother you," his hands gestured to Taylor's car and then wildly towards the town in general, "tell me and I will go back to the diner."

His nephew remained silent. His facial expression was guarded.

"Exactly and that is why his car will have to pay."

Jess shook his head after hearing those words and smirked: "Leave the pranks to pro, Uncle Luke. There is a reason I'm here, you know."

"You have an idea?"

Jess simply smirked.

"Jess, I want to participate," the words provoked a short laughter from the younger man. It was soft and Luke couldn't help but smile in return. Why his nephew wasn't seeing anybody was a mystery to him. Seeing him like this made him think that the girls would stand in line to go out with him.

"I want it to be a surprise," his nephew replied still smiling a little. He pushed his body from the wall and turned to walk away, just before he was out of earshot he said, "Go back to the diner, Luke. I'll see you tonight at the town meeting."

At that, his uncle was already quite sure what Jess was about to manipulate.

About three very warm hours later and no customers to remain longer than getting some food to go, Luke Danes closed the diner in order to go to the town meeting. He had almost stepped inside when his nephew suddenly appeared to his left. They acknowledged each other without saying a word and went in to sit on their benches in the back of the room.

Lorelai Gilmore arrived together with her best friend Sookie whose freshly-married husband Jackson held her hand. Her only daughter Rory wasn't with them for she spent the summer in Washington.

When she saw the empty space next to Luke and Jess, she came over and sat down.

"That is something which isn't being witnessed everyday: The Diner Boys United." she smiled at Luke, but her eyes hardened and her smile seemed forced when she looked at the younger man. It was no secret that Lorelai disliked Jess, a feeling that was reciprocated, much to the despair of the uncle and the daughter.

"Good evening, Ladies and Gentleman. Dear friends," Taylor seemed a little nervous this evening, always alternating between looking at the crowd and his notes, "I usually practice my speeches more thoroughly, but I have lost my notes this afternoon and was therefore unable to train my speech. Fortunately, I found them about five minutes before I left the house. Please forgive me that I will be dependent on my notes for the time being."

Luke glanced over to Jess who simply looked bored. Maybe, this wasn't his doing.

The meeting was as pointless as most of the meetings that were held inside of these halls. It was only at the end of the meeting that Taylor noticed something.

"I must have lost a page since… Well, there are two other matters that have to be discussed… decided, I mean," he seemed flustered, obviously not used to town meetings without thorough preparation, "The topic concerns Luke and his hoodlum of a nephew Jess." All heads turned towards them at the mentioning of their names.

"First, we'd like to tear the bridge down… The one leading over lake in the park for it is too damaged to be repaired. The construction will take its time, the rest of the summer, in fact. Everybody in favour, please raise their hands."

Infuriated murmur startled Taylor for a moment and caused him to look around. His citizens started to discuss the matter.

- "What does this have to do with Luke or Jess?" – "Well, doesn't the boy spend a lot of time on there reading?"

- "But hardly anybody ever is on that bridge, so why the rush in repairing it?"

- "Better having the boy there than vandalizing our homes."

Hearing the last comment caused Jess to smirk a little.

"People, please! Does anybody want to say anything about this? Then, I want you to do so officially and not whispering it to your neighbour's ears."

"Taylor," Babette's rough voice spoke up, "I know you don't like the boy, none of us actually do," she turned towards Jess and said apologetically, "Sorry, Darling," but he shook his head a little to indicate that this wasn't exactly a news-flash for him, "but on that bridge he's always on his own and doesn't get into trouble. So, why don't we just let him have the bridge?"

The rest of the town agreed to those words and only a moment later, Taylor had to accept defeat. He was smart enough not to bring up the other matter bugging him, not when he was so ill-prepared.

"Well, that would be it for tonight. All other matters can wait until our next meeting," he fumbled once again with his notes, obviously uncomfortable with the lack of preparation he'd had for this evening.

"I declare this meeting over and," he looked down on his notes once again, "do not ever forget that I am the Big Brother that will always watch you."

Absolute silence followed those words, Taylor reread his notes, his eyes widened and he looked up in panic: "That's not what I wanted to say, I…"

"Goodnight, Taylor. I think you might need it," Miss Patty said carefully and touched his shoulder softly.

The hall emptied, in the end only Jess, Luke and Taylor remained. The youngest of the room's current occupants looked at Taylor smirking triumphantly.

"It was you," Taylor hissed, "you messed with my speech. You are a hooligan! They should put you behind bars."

Jess seemed untouched by the accusation and simply said: "That's an interesting quote you used in the end. _1984_, isn't it? You should read that book because ever since I came here you remind me of it."

At that he turned around and left the hall, his uncle followed. They didn't speak until the apartment door closed behind them.

"How did you do all this?" Luke Danes had never been impressed with his nephew's little pranks, but tonight he couldn't help it. He didn't even think about lecturing the boy.

"A magician never reveals his tricks, Uncle Luke," was the cocky reply.

"Then, answer me one question? How did you know the people would react like this? How did you know Taylor would act like this?"

"People in packs are remarkably predictable and therefore easily manipulated except for a few individuals who are aware of it. People like Taylor know how to convince a group of people, not few politicians are very gifted at it. They use the art of speech to persuade others of their opinions. When you take away their speech, you take their power. Taylor is a stickler to rules and everything he does in life is well-organized. So, it was only logical to me that he practises those speeches for the town meeting several times before he goes to them. So by taking his preparation, I took his power. It's as simple as that."

Luke could only stare at his nephew.

"Jess, do me a favour. Should I ever infuriate you, please tell me first before you decide to plan your revenge."

"Sure thing, Uncle Luke."


	8. What do you think I'm going to do?

_Note: _This one-shot was inspired by episode 3.08, the one right after the dance marathon.

**Story 8: What do you think I'm going to do?**

When his uncle – who had been very pleased with himself – left the apartment closing the door behind him, different emotions coursing through Jess caused him to sigh.

He couldn't remember the last time – or any time for that matter – to have felt as nervous as the moment before he had nearly managed to kiss her. Merely touching her hands had caused his heartbeat to exhilarate faster than any other time he'd had physical contact with a girl.

When Luke had entered so brusquely, he'd jumped back less out of embarrassment but more because the noise of the opening door had startled him. It was rare for him to be so completely consumed by another person's presence to forget about his surroundings. Rory had managed to do this from the very beginning of their acquaintance.

When she'd left – completely embarrassed –, the room had felt so empty without her it had nearly been impossible for him to remain.

Almost as much as the confusion of where they stood now, Luke's words and reaction bothered him.

Oh, he had wanted to get a rise of Luke with his hanging-a-sock-on-the-door comment, but it pained him to realize how lowly his uncle thought of him as soon as it came to his behaviour towards people Luke deeply cared about.

Their _talk_ had been ridiculous for the most part, for example them – Rory and Jess – never to sit on the same furniture together or to keep the door open all the time.

What did Luke think he would do? Convince Rory to drink and smoke? He had no desire to change her. He'd fallen for her for a reason and he didn't want her to be anybody else. To bring her home by 9:00 on weekdays was absolutely reasonable and he would have never done anything else.

What did Luke think he was? A monster?

He had tried to lighten the mood by offering Luke to have him committed, but it had backfired making Luke even angrier.

"_You know you're my guardian, not hers." _Legally, Luke wasn't even his guardian but more of an unpaid babysitter.

"_You don't need the guardian_." That comment had hurt him more than it should. 'Yeah, right,' he thought sarcastically. _,_Because nothing could ever hurt me. God, Luke! You should know me better than this.'

Luke knew more about him than anybody else in this town including Rory and yet he thought him capable of doing something… anything that would hurt her.

Had his uncle just bothered to listen he would have recognized his next words to be nothing more than the scathing comment of a hurt teenager.

"_She tried to kiss me. __She did that thing where you stretch and put your arm around the other person's shoulder and then you sneeze and your hand falls and you try to grab…."_

"_Jess, stop it."_ Luke had sounded so disgusted that moment… Jess had to force himself to change his strategy immediately.

"_What do think is going to happen?"_

"_You know what I think is gonna happen_."

'Yeah, of course I do Luke. I'm not an idiot, but I want to hear it from you.'

"_No, I don't. Tell me. Tell me what I'll do to her."_

But his uncle didn't say it out loud. He simply said that they – no, actually only he – would not be able to do anything without supervision.

"_Romeo and Juliet had warring families__ and they still managed to do a little damage, you know."_

'Luke, get the hint,' he had thought desperately, 'please, don't make me say it. I care for her. I do. Do you really think I would try to do anything that might hurt her?'

But of course, his reference wasn't taken seriously. His feelings were dismissed for they did not matter. They'd never mattered. He was angry at himself for ever assuming the contrary.

Nevertheless, he'd expected another reaction from Luke and the disappointment hurt more than he cared to admit.

He'd known his relationship with Rory wouldn't be approved by many, but until today he'd always hoped that his uncle would be one of those supporting them.

It didn't matter anymore what he'd hoped or expected from his uncle. Reality looked different: He was the bad guy, the one to hurt her, the one to take her innocence and he would always remain in this position. Even his uncle who had seen him at his most vulnerable thought so.

What did this say about him? What kind of person would be deemed untouchable by those who'd seen him without any protective walls whatsoever?

He didn't want to think about this anymore, so instead of continuing his musings he picked up a book and let himself be lost in the world of literature for books had always been his last resort, his safe haven when the world around him started to crumble and fall apart.

* * *

Thank you so much for the reviews! I didn't write anything in Chapter 7, but I truly appreciate your thoughts concerning my story. This is my only story that is being commented regularely by 6 people...

The special thank you goes to: LiteratiLady, Kaz010, MissGoalie75, lilliwhite, Jeremy Shane and . as well as Acute Delirium who have reviewed so often already. Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

For me there is only one more chapter to write which means chapters 9, 10 and 11 are ready to be posted... You know how it goes: Many reviews equals quick updates, the simplest of all equations (one that Jess could do without problems ;-))

_Next Chapter_: Why are you calling?


	9. Why are you calling?

_Note_: takes place shortly after episode 6.18; around the time when Luke returns to Stars Hollow

**Story 9: Why are you calling?**

Luke barely entered his apartment from his trip with April when the phone rang. He hurried over and picked it up.

"Hello."

"_I figured you'd be home by now_," he was welcomed by a very familiar, melodious voice. He smiled. Only Jess could anticipate things like this.

"I've just entered the apartment. Thanks for calling me." He enjoyed the regular phone contact with his nephew. In fact, he'd planned on calling him today as well, just to say that he was home.

"_How was the rest of your trip?"_

"Interesting. I must say, those scientific contests are fascinating. How come you never participated to this kind of stuff?" He was joking and his matured nephew recognized this for he laughed softly.

It was easier to make Jess laugh these days, though it was still something reserved to few for he simply wasn't the kind of person to carry his heart on his sleeve, but Jess was… It was hard to say what was different. He was calm, mature, all in all at peace with himself. It was good to see his nephew like this.

"Is there a special reason you called?"

"_Asking my uncle if he arrived safely isn't good enough a reason?"_ His nephew asked and it was impossible to tell whether he was serious or not. Jess' sense of humour was difficult to anticipate over the phone which was why he preferred talking to him in person because in those cases he was able to see him and therefore could tell how sincere he was judging by the expression in his eyes.

"I'm not saying it isn't a good reason, but I doubt it's the only one." Over the years he had learnt to ask Jess questions without cornering him. Like this, the younger man opened up much more readily than when he ambushed him. He just wished to have known this three or even four years ago. Many catastrophes could have been avoided.

"_I need to talk to you." _Serious. Jess' tone left no room for any other approach.

"I'm listening."

"_Right after you left…" _He was quiet for a moment, "_I showed Rory around. It was great. We've had a lot of fun, I was relaxed for she'd entered my world – or lets say, the world I live in now – and I could just… be myself," Rory_. A sore subject, even after all those years. It didn't surprise him that his nephew called him. He was the example of pining after the same woman for years, "_It was like old times and like something else completely at the same time. Talking about books just like we used to years ago and at the same time us showing each other what kind of people we've become."_ He knew his nephew for four years and yet this was the first time he heard this kind of tone which was why it took him a while before he recognized the sentiment: Pride. Jess was proud with what he'd achieved, he was truly content with himself.

It was good to hear this and at the same time made him wonder how emotionally insecure Jess had to have been while living in Stars Hollow. He had worn his masks remarkably well.

"_I… I was happy to have her here,"_ hearing this chased all other thoughts away . He'd never heard Jess using the word 'happy' when it came to his own emotions. Luke hadn't known that a positive word could be spoken with so much pain. Jess' voice croaked and it caused Luke to swallow. What happened?

"_I kissed her."_ Oh. That was unexpected.

"Jess."

"_Don't say it. I know I am an idiot. I've had my chance and I blew it, but I… She loves him, that arrogant jerk… He cheated on her and she said she was still in love with him…"_ Hearing Jess' voice break was harder than hearing any other person's voice break, because before his nephew broke down, his heart had to be cut and sliced into tiny little pieces and stomped upon. Luke wondered if Rory knew just how much power she had over Jess, even after so many years.

"I don't know what to say, Jess."

"_Tell me it'll get easier. Tell me that day won't haunt me all my life. Tell me… Tell me, I'll stop making a fool of myself for a girl."_

Luke had to smile at that despite the fact it was not a joking matter: "You want _me _– of all people – to tell you this? The guy who was in love with the same woman for more than a decade but only started to go out with her a little bit more than two years ago?"

Though he couldn't see him, he knew there was a sad smile on his nephew's lips: "_But you got there in the end, didn't you? You are about to marry her_."

Luke flinched a little. They had been holding off the wedding for quite a while now. He had April to consider these days.

"Yeah, I am…" Anybody less perceptive than Jess Mariano wouldn't have heard the hesitance in his words, but he caught up on it.

"_Don't, Luke! Don't screw this up. Let this be said by the guy who screwed up in a relationship more profoundly than any other man in the history of failures." _Jess' tone was sharp and serious.

Luke had no desire to discuss this with Jess and decided to change topic.

"I've read _the Subsect_, Jess."

"_Yeah? What do you think?" _He seemed genuinely curious.

"To be honest, there were parts I didn't quite get. Nevertheless, I did recognize your typical sense of humour."

"_What do you mean?"_ Once again he could hear him smile.

"Your wit. You've always had a sense of humour that displayed your intelligence. You have the talent to confuse people with one sentence more than others could by speaking for minutes. You put that in your writing, too: It is very smart, but you don't flaunt that."

There was silence and Luke could imagine Jess playing with his fingers. He'd always had troubles to accept any kind of gratitude or compliment.

He decided to continue: "I just wanted you to know… It's a mystery to me how a guy who never says more than a few words could be so eloquent when writing things down."

The answer he received would one day be read by many people for it would be the gist of Jess Mariano's most successful work, but for now it was only heard by the man who'd been like a father to him and whom he trusted more than anybody else:

"_The spoken word never brought me anywhere. The written one saved my sanity."_

"You'll be okay, Jess. I promise you will be okay."

* * *

Okay... The reason I'm posting now is because I've finished the the story last story in the so-called Thank-you Series and I'm feeling great about finishing my first multi-chapter fiction written in English (which is not my first language).

I sincerly hope that you will review chapter 8, anyway...

_Next Chapter_: I have a request to make...


	10. I have a request to make

**Story 10: A request to make…**

"_Oh hello, that's a surprise!"_ His uncle sounded positively surprised which made Jess smile. Despite the fact their phone calls came more and more regularly, they still hadn't found a proper routine. Hearing his uncle was good, though.

"Hello, Luke. How are things?" It was a lame beginning for a conversation, but he couldn't just get to the point. What he wanted to tell him was pretty big.

"_Fine. How are you?"_ Lame question deserved a lame answer.

"Okay." The problem with calling Luke was the fact neither of them was known to be remarkably chatty which made the calls a little bit awkward. They'd always gotten along just fine when seeing each other.

'_Unless you annoyed him to no end_,' his conscience reminded him promptly.

He still felt like he was disappointing his uncle on a daily basis despite the fact he had a steady job and finally had started to work at a place he truly cherished.

_Truncheon Books_ was without doubt the best thing that could happen to a mere high-school drop-out whose main interest was literature and who hated boundaries in general.

He still hadn't talked to his uncle about it. Luke only knew he was living in Philadelphia at the moment. Today he had finally found the guts to tell him about it… That and he had a request to make.

"_Is there a special reason for calling me?"_ They never were much for small-talk. Either called the other when they had something to tell, positive or negative. For example had Luke called when he'd finally gotten together with Lorelai and Jess had called him when he settled in Philadelphia (though he had never told him of his deeply embarrassing last encounter with Rory).

"Actually… Yes. Do you have a moment, because this might take a while?"

Luke's _sure_ he could only assume for the noise of Luke obviously moving a kitchen chair to sit on it a little bit more comfortably muffled his voice.

"Well… a lot happened since our last call. I've moved again." He waited to listen to Luke's reaction and was quite sure to have heard a muffled sigh, "I'm living now above a publishing house in Locust Street. I've gotten a job there. It's nothing big, just a couple of guys with a small press publishing about three books and a magazine a month. It's fun though."

His uncle was silent for a moment. Jess knew that the world he was now talking about was foreign to the older man. Nevertheless, he obviously had heard the content tone of his nephew: "_That sounds very good, Jess. Tell me about those guys. How did you meet them?_"

Without knowing it, he just asked the one question that would make the following conversation a lot easier.

"Funny you should ask… Well, while I was travelling this past year, I started to…" He didn't know how to say it, "Do you remember that time when I came back to Stars Hollow to get my car?" Hearing his uncle wince made him realized that he looked about as fondly back to that day as he did, "you asked me whether I wrote the great American novel… I didn't at the time and what I've got now definitely isn't _On the Road_ either, but I did it. Thanks to those guys there is a published novel on the market with my name on it."

Silence. Jess felt a jolt. He hadn't expected Luke to be proud or happy for him, but the lack of reaction hurt more than he'd anticipated.

"Anyway," he continued trying to keep his voice steady albeit he simply wanted to hang up. He hadn't told anybody about this… He had wanted Luke to be the first to know. He had just hoped… Before thinking about this more thoroughly, he said, "A couple of weeks ago I finally finished it, but it was just written in a notebook and in order to present that to a publishing house it needed to be written with a computer. Therefore I bought a laptop and started to type it. I was in a little place that sold coffee and typed when someone accidently bumped my table and my notebook fell down. The guy – whose name was Matthew, I later found out – picked it up and was in the middle of apologizing when he started to read it. The other guy next to him – Chris – asked him what was up, but Matthew was quite engrossed in my notes." He smiled at the memory, "About one hour later my book was already as good as printed. Another three hours of conversation later, I had a job at _Truncheon Books_. There's Matthew, a nice guy who's older than me but very shy and quite nervous sometimes, so it's me taking care of him." the _'He reminded me of Mark although lacking the smarts in math' _he managed to bite back "and Chris as I've already said. He's cool and well read. He takes care of the artists – because he's deeply into the art scene – while Matthew's the guy taking care of the poets. Apart from them there are Sam – who graduated from Harvard in journalism. He's mainly responsible for the magazine we put out, but he doesn't live in Truncheon the way Chris and Matthew do for he also works at some newspaper – and Jill – actually Julius, but he decided that Jill fit him better – who's an artist himself and helps with the artistic aspects of the books and magazines we print. There was also Marcus, but I never met the guy for he moved back home to Chicago around the time I arrived in Philadelphia. They weren't looking for a replacement, but when they met me they kind of thought I would fit into that strange group and so… I'm here."

He wanted a reaction. He didn't care what his uncle would say – actually he cared a great deal, but that was unimportant for the moment – he simply wanted him to say anything.

"_You wrote a book?"_

"Just a short novel," Jess said immediately. He was sitting on his mattress in his room fidgeting a little nervously until he couldn't bare it anymore and stood up, "It's not a Kerouac or anything, but yeah, I started to write."

"_Jess, that is amazing! I am very proud of you."_

Jess' heart swelled at the words and he had trouble breathing.

Nobody in his entire life had ever said that they were proud of him. Hearing it caused his eyes to moisten despite the fact he desperately tried to avoid it.

"Thanks," he said roughly.

"_Wow…"_ His uncle exclaimed causing him to chuckle a little. Now he had the courage to say what he'd planned to.

"I have a request to make." The nervousness was back the moment he opened his mouth.

"_Yes_?"

"The book's author-distributed which means I'll be travelling around in order to beg independent bookstores to put it in stock. I'll be in Hartford for a few days and I would like to show the book to Rory, so if you could just tell me where she is…"

"_Jess_," his uncle sounded exasperated and Jess closed his eyes. He had anticipated that reaction.

"I know, Luke. It's over… She made that perfectly clear." Speaking it aloud was much more painful than one would think after not having seen her in over a year. Merely hearing her name caused his heart to skip a beat. It was quite frustrating, but he had to do this. She had to see that he finally found something he could do passionately, she had to know that he couldn't have done it without her.

"_I don't fell comfortable…_" Luke started.

"Do you really think she pines after me, Luke? Our last encounter was…" _Terrible? Hell? The most embarrassing moment of my life?_ "Let's just say that it was the definite end of our relationship and that was more than a year ago. She moved on. I moved on." Well, the later was blatant lie, but he was sure of the former.

"_She lives in Hartford at the moment at her grandparent's place."_ Jess furrowed his eyebrows at that.

"Why?"

He literally heard Luke squirm.

"_Lorelai and her… They are having problems at the moment."_

Jess was immediately worried at that revelation. He wasn't the biggest fan of Lorelai and he knew she wasn't his, but he knew Rory well enough to realize that a fight with her mother would not only depress her but had the power to destroy her.

"Thanks for the warning," was all he could think of saying. Then he added: "Thanks for telling me."

"_You're welcome."_

* * *

Almost two years later he stood in front of Luke's Diner. They'd seen each other regularly about once every half a year, once at Truncheon, then when Luke had visited him shortly after Lorelai and him had broken up. Later when Doula was born and he had sneaked into town to visit his little sister and uncle and now he stood in front of the infamous diner all over again.

He was nervous because he had a request to make once again. He looked inside and was relieved to see that there weren't many customers inside and he didn't know any of those who were there.

Hesitantly he stepped inside and waited for his uncle to notice him. Luke looked up from the counter and smiled when he recognized his nephew. He came forward and hugged him affectionately. Their hugs had become part of their ways of saying goodbye and only rarely it was a form of greeting the other as well. Jess secretly cherished the moment for Luke was still the only male belonging to the older generation whom he allowed to come closer than five feet. Jimmy would be alright as well, but that guy was even more hesitant with physical contact than he was. T.J. he couldn't even bear to be in the same room with.

"Jess. That is one great surprise. How are you doing?"

"Fine, thanks. And judging by that goofy smile of yours, you guys made up." His uncle looked truly happy and though he sounded annoyed, it was in fact wonderful to see the man look so cheerful. If there was one person in the world that deserved happiness it was Luke.

"You know that already." The smile still refused to leave his expression.

Indeed he did. His uncle had called him not long after the reconciliation.

"What are you doing here?" That caused Jess to gulp a little. It was now or never.

"I have a request to make."

"I've heard that one before," Luke simply said.

"Can I talk to you alone, please?" Jess was unable to meet his eyes. In moments like this he felt like a small boy. Luke looked worried and gestured him to go upstairs.

Once the door closed behind them Jess walked around in the old apartment. It was obvious that his former "room" had become April's which was alright to a certain point. His eyes widened a little when he saw his old copy of _Peter Pan_ standing on one of the bookshelves.

"I've been looking for that everywhere," he exclaimed walking over and started to closely examine the book to make sure it's condition was still good.

"What can I do for you, Jess?"

"I've just wondered if I could stay here for a month." He had expected an angry expression on his uncle's face, immediate rejection and a part of him happiness. What he hadn't expected was obvious worry.

"But I thought things were alright with you in Philadelphia, Jess. Did something happen?"

Jess smiled at that: "Things are better than alright, Luke. No reason to be concerned. _Truncheon_'s got a great reputation in Philadelphia's art scene and it starts to spread even further plus _the Subsect_ will be printed in a second edition, this time there will be a bigger amount of books because of an increasing amount of interested bookstores. I am here because I took a month off in order to finish my second novel. I'll do some editing too, but the good thing about the internet is that I don't have to stay at _Truncheon _to do that. I would just like to spend some quiet weeks here if that is possible."

"Congratulations, Jess! That is amazing. Of course you can stay here. I'm looking forward to it actually." He looked truly happy about it.

Jess avoided his uncle's eyes when he continued: "I remember your conditions concerning staying here." His words were almost whispered. He was ashamed of the kind of person he was during his two years in Stars Hollow.

"Jess…," he softly grabbed Jess' left shoulder forcing him to look up, "that was different. You've found your way and that's more than good enough. It's great."

Wordlessly Jess opened his bag, extracted an envelope from it and handed it over. A little confused Luke took and opened it.

"_High School Equivalency Diploma_," Luke read aloud and then stared at Jess, "You did your GED."

Jess looked at him with a very serious expression: "I am a man of my word, Luke. I promised that things would change when I came back here for my Senior year, but I disappointed you… So, I did the next best thing. I took some classes in night school and took the test. I should have done it years ago…" He wanted to say more, but was interrupted when the strong man embraced him once again using much more force than usual.

"Jess, I am so proud of you," he beamed at his nephew when he finally released him from his painfully strong hug.

Then suddenly, he looked sad and Jess was about to ask what was wrong when Luke spoke up: "The graduation ceremony is already over when you got the diploma, isn't it."

Jess only nodded. That had been weeks ago. He had thought about inviting family, but decided against it because he should have graduated years ago. That didn't mean it hadn't hurt when except for Chris, Matt, Jill and Sam nobody else had come.

"Keep reading." He said.

Luke's attention flipped back to the papers before him: "…score of 780 of 800… highest score in the city of Philadelphia… Jess, that is… Mr Mariano we are pleased to inform you… scholarship… Community College of Philadelphia… Jess!... Creative Writing Academic Certificate… three semesters…"

Luke looked up, his mouth was wide open.

"It's close enough to Locust Street so I can stay with the guys and I'll only be taking that course which means I'll keep working at the place. There's a lot I can do at _Truncheon_ and the good thing is that college is being paid for, so…"

Once again he was forced into a bone-crushing hug. When he was released he saw that his uncle's eyes had started to moisten. He forgot to breath for a moment.

"You are a great kid, Jess. Don't you ever dare to forget that!" The man smiled wildly and looked incredibly proud.

It couldn't possibly be him to cause Luke looking at him like that. He had gotten used to that pleased, softened expression on his uncle's face, but he had never seen him so proud.

Jess couldn't help but return the smile.

"You are more than just welcome to stay here as long as you like, son…nephew." They both realized the slip of the tongue and Jess had the urge to cry suppressing it only by biting his lower lip.

In moments like this Jess was just grateful that neither of them were men of many words for sometimes silence was golden. There were no words needed to acknowledge that despite the fact they were nephew and uncle by blood, they definitely were more than that by heart.

* * *

Thanks for all those who reviewed. I'm a little sad to see how many readers I've lost, but I will not punish those who decided to review :-)

I won't have any internet connection tomorrow which is why you will not get another update before Sunday.

Only two more chapters to go... Thanks for sticking with me for so long!

_Next Chapter: _Yet another request...


	11. Yet another request

**Story 11: Yet another request…**

_He sat on a chair in the kitchen with the phone pressed on his ears waiting for his nephew to pick up. Nervously he stood up again walking about the room._

"Hello?"_ His nephew's focused tone indicated that he was wildly awake despite the fact it was shortly before midnight. Jess had always been capable of working until late. _

"_Hello," he retorted. _

"Luke? What happened?"_ Of course, he would be worried. Luke usually called in the evenings or early afternoons but never at night._

"_Nothing bad, I assure you," he said trying to soothe his nephew, "It's good news actually." Indeed it was and he wanted Jess to be one of the first to know._

"Yes?"

"_Lorelai and I are getting married. We're engaged." Silence. He was actually quite sure that his nephew stopped breathing for a second._

"Huh." _He hadn't expected his nephew to do back flips (he had said years ago that he was way too cool for that) and he could have predicted Jess' taciturn reaction because Lorelai wasn't his favourite, but a little bit more of enthusiasm would have been nice. _

"Congratulations."_ It was impossible to determine whether or not he was serious. _

"_Thank you." He bit his lips. Maybe, this had been a mistake. He should ask someone else. _

"Does she make you happy?" _It was strange hearing this kind of question asked by Jess. Even stranger was the tone for it spoke of true concern for his uncle's happiness. He could answer the question without hesitation._

"_Yes."_

_His nephew relaxed instantly. He literally heard him smile and then laugh._

"Finally! I've read the two of you the second I came to Stars Hollow and I've actually waited for the day the two of you would stop denying what was obvious for everybody else."

_The smartass comment was duly noted and Luke decided not to say anything about it. He was glad to hear his nephew's positive reaction._

"_I'm calling because I thought you should hear it from me and nobody else."_

_Jess didn't say anything, but had they been in the same room, the former rebel would have avoided eye-contact the way he only did when complimented or something was done specifically for him._

"_And I wanted to ask if you…" It was big… What he would asked for was a _biggie_ to say it in Jess' words, "Would you like to be my best man, Jess?"_

_His nephew didn't utter a single word, stunned. There was silence for what seemed several minutes until Luke couldn't take it anymore: "Jess?"_

"Yes," _the answer was whispered and yet his voice seemed to have dropped._

"_Yes, you're still there or yes…?"_

"Yes, I will be your best man," _Jess spoke up, but Luke was unable to deduct what his nephew was feeling for he had never heard that tone. He couldn't help but wonder what the younger man was going through: Was he worried about meeting Rory again? Was he happy to have been asked? Did he think of it as something special or didn't it matter at all? He knew Jess well enough to know that the later most certainly was not the case. He decided not to pester him about it, though._

"_Thanks, Jess."_

"Anytime, Uncle Luke."

* * *

Not an entire year later, Luke sat alone in his apartment with his face in his hands. He had screwed up. So royally screwed up. They had screwed up, the both of them.

The anger he had felt before when visiting the son of a bitch was no longer inside of him leaving only grief and despair.

There was absolutely nobody he could talk to. His sister wasn't good with things like that, T.J. he couldn't even think of approaching, Lorelai… well since it was her who was the reason for his despair was out of the question as well… Everybody else in this town he didn't even think about approaching.

Luke didn't have many close friends, in fact he had no close friends at all since his best friend he'd lost at the same time as he'd lost his fiancée. For the first time in his life he craved for somebody he could talk to about his love-life or lack thereof, somebody who would understand the feeling of pining after somebody only to lose them again.

_She was totally coming onto you… Especially since she's not a monk… Tell me, when was the last time you were on a date?_

… _Unlike some other people I know I am not gonna sit around hoping that they might notice me…_

…_Geez, man! Just meet her parents already. So what if they hate you, you've been there before…_

…_I'm going to go out for an hour… Do you at least want met to take a walk around the block or take an extra-long shower?…_

Despite himself Luke smiled at the memory. Jess had always cared… He was being sarcastic about it, but he had practically dared him to date and to just be happy with a woman. Without him he probably wouldn't have noticed Nicole's flirting (which looking back wouldn't have been so bad, but they did have a great time at the beginning which probably had been Jess' goal). While thinking about this he noticed himself automatically dialling a mobile phone number he had learnt by heart by now.

"_Hello_?"

"Hello, Jess," he heard his voice break and was aware his perceptive nephew would pick up on it as well.

"_What happened?"_ Jess must have been lying on his bed (or mattress, Jess never seemed to have had the need for an actual bed) reading, for he heard a muffled moan off him sitting up.

"We've been skirting around setting a date for the wedding, well, I have actually. You know, because of April and I just wanted to get to know my own daughter… Then Lorelai said she didn't want to wait anymore and wanted me to elope with her…"

"_Lucky you_," his nephew simply stated and Luke wasn't quite sure why bitterness tainted Jess' melodious voice.

"… I said no. I couldn't… She gave me an ultimatum."

"_Oh no_," Jess said, obviously very well aware that "ultimatum" and "Danes man" wasn't the best of combinations.

"I couldn't do it and she walked away," his voice nearly broke at this, but he had to tell the tale, "and I was just numb afterwards… Do you know what I mean?"

"_You can be assured that I do_," was the sad answer.

"Anyway, after Kirk crashed into my diner with his car…"

"_What? Did you get hurt?"_ Those worriedly spoken words shouldn't have the ability to make him smile a little, but the fact Jess Mariano was worried about him, made him feel a bit better.

"No, I wasn't hurt… I didn't really feel anything. I mean, this diner is my life, but I didn't feel anything. Without Lorelai it is just…"

"_A mere room with tables in it?"_

"Yeah. So I packed all of my stuff and drove over. I told her how I felt and that I wanted to be with her. I was ready to bail and she wanted me to just stop talking. I panicked and started to ramble…"

A humourless laugh escaped his nephew's lips: "_We are more alike than I ever thought._"

"She slept with Christopher."

"_Oh."_

"I went by his apartment and punched him."

"_Good."_ Jess' voice had a steely edge to it. Hadn't Luke done it, there was a fair shot his nephew would've done it for him. "_You okay?"_

"Yeah."

"_Don't lie to me_." The words weren't spoken as sharply as one would think.

Luke didn't know what to say. He felt like his heart was torn apart and scattered all over the place. He felt miserable and all he wanted was some comfort.

"_The pain lessens a little, you know."_

"What?" He wasn't sure he'd heard him correctly.

"_The pain to be refused by a Gilmore… It doesn't disappear completely, but it does lessen. It's hell at first, but it will get better._"

At that Luke wondered what had happened between Rory and Jess during their last few encounters for it seemed as if it was always Jess to be the one hurt and broken in the end. He could only hope that Rory didn't do this on purpose…

"But, Luke. The two of you… There is too much to never have anything to do with her ever again and if it's just friendship…"

Currently he couldn't even think about talking to her, never to mention actually being friends with her. Besides, the thought of going back to be the guy-with-the-coffee was unbearable.

"I am not sure if I can do that," he said truthfully.

Jess' following words were spoken forcefully: "_Imagine living completely without her. Can you to that? 'Cause that's the alternative. Are you ready to do that, because I can tell you that this is painful far beyond the rejection you're dealing with now. Give it time, Luke. Just give it time. Trust me._"

* * *

Jess was right. Of course, he was. He was hardly ever wrong, especially these days. Nearly one and a half years after their phone call during Luke's dark hour and about one month after Jess left Stars Hollow (with a completed second novel in his bag), Luke called his nephew yet again.

"_Hello?"_

"You know, you really should learn to change your greetings when picking up the phone."

"_And you should know that distance makes the heart grow fonder. We've talked the day before yesterday, haven't we? Whatever... Give me the good news." _Well, Luke was chattier on the phone when being happy, he'd noticed that.

"_It's more a request, actually. Will you be my best man?"_

He could see Jess' eyebrows rise although they weren't in the same room.

"_Isn't it bad luck to ask this the same person twice_?" He asked very drily. For a full minute Jess managed to contain his feelings, before Luke could actually _hear_ the wide smile adorning his nephew's face.

"_I give up_," he said, obviously angry with himself for not being able to keep up his poker face around his uncle anymore, "_Congratulations, Luke. My answer's the same as two years ago, by the way."_

* * *

I have to leave the house within the next five minutes. But you guys have written such great reviews, I couldn't help it and decided to post the eleventh chapter.

.: You were right about this chapter as you see, I hope you like the way I wrote it, though.

Please, read and review!

Only one more chapter to go...


	12. Thank you for being here

_Note_: So, this is it: the last story! Thank you for coming along the way with this crazy little collection of Luke-Jess stories. I can assure you it was fun to write.

**Story 12: Thank you for being here**

"I know I've said this many times before, but thank you for always being there for me," Jess Mariano said softly. His voice broke a little, but a gentle smile adorned his features.

"Dad, why do you say that every year?" A twenty-five year old man asked him standing to his left. His sharp, brown eyes observed his father. "Uncle Luke died four years ago…" They came here every year, all of them, the whole family, but Jess always stood there longer and the only person to remain alongside him was his son.

"Because he was always there for me," the father answered without hesitation, "ever since he awaited me on the bus station in Stars Hollow."

The younger man observed the older one next to him silently and was aware of his father's awareness of what he was doing. Uncle Luke had once told him that his dad was the most observant person he'd ever met and that he had found no evidence for the contrary. Ever since he was a kid he had tried to observe his father unnoticed and it had never worked for more than ten seconds. Today again, Jess looked over to him smiling sadly, but there were no tears falling down.

In fact, the only time he'd seen his father cry was at the funeral of Uncle Luke: He had been supposed to hold the eulogy, but all he had been able to say was "Thank you for everything. Good night, Uncle Luke," right before he had broken down and started to sob. His mother had ended the prepared speech albeit she had been crying, too. His remaining grandmother had been completely unresponsive.

It was the only time he'd seen his dad cry. He hadn't cried when Grandma Liz had died, he had held the eulogy without shedding a single tear. He had mourned for her, but it had been a much more reserved form of grief than what he'd gone through after Uncle Luke's death.

His dad was a rather successful author and accomplished editor. These days, he conversed with his friends and partners in Philly thanks to emails and phone calls (his father was old-fashioned that way), but they visited frequently always bringing news from their second home. Ever since Truncheon (whose reputation was excellent) had become a joint company with Andrew's Bookshop the connection between Philadelphia and Stars Hollow had deepened not only through Jess Mariano and his family but by work relations as well.

His father always insisted that he was not the boss of the company.

"_They are my friends, not employees."_

That might be true, in fact, each of them had their particular specialty: Uncle Matt was the one to deal with the poets, Uncle Chris the one who dealt with the art and artists, and Jill, the artist himself, together with Sam who despite being responsible for a column at a local paper was always ready to write articles for their magazine that came out once a month for more than thirty years. There was also Aunt Sylvie, an old, very good friend of his dad who was being the coordinator between Stars Hollow and Philadelphia.

However, despite the fact his father insisted on not being anybody's boss, it was him who kept them all together for that was – according to his mother – his greatest talent:

"_He's like a magnetic stamp: People who meet him are drawn to him and no matter what they think of him, he touches their lives. It can take years until they realize it, but that touch is always positive in the end."_

His grandmother and Grandma Liz had both insisted that this was a gene which Jess had inherited by his uncle and that was passed to every male Danes (or Mariano) and therefore a gift he was supposed to have as well. He was quite sure not to have that talent, not the way his father or Uncle Luke did.

Ever since the later had retired twelve years ago _Luke's Diner_ was in his father's responsibility who had given said responsibility to an odd but cherished friend of their family, Kirk, who ever since was taking care of the diner making sure that one part of Stars Hollow never changed. His dad occasionally helped out by cleaning the tables or closing it up.

It was no secret that his dad was mentally writing a new book – _just a short novel_, he still insisted on that although some of his novels were everything but short – when helping out in the diner.

His mother was a diligent (and successful) journalist, sometimes working abroad for weeks without ever neglecting her children or husband. Nevertheless, it was his father who was the main figure in his life for he was always there, no matter how far they were apart.

When his little sister had decided not to attend to an Ivy League school Jess had been the first to support her. When his dad's _adoptive half-sister_ – as they called Auntie Lou for fun – had had the wish to study in the East – the same Community College his father had studied at – it had been him taking care of everything. The only negative aspect of having someone like Jess Mariano as your father – or older brother as Aunt April, Doula and Auntie Lou confirmed – was the fact he knew every trick of rebelling against authority (parental or otherwise) and therefore he caught up on them planning mischief fairly quickly. Another negative side he'd never had to experience himself, though, was a certain tendency of his father to be overprotective towards the women in his life which made the dating for the females under his dad's care a nightmare. His mother swore he was worse than Uncle Luke and his great-grandfather – whom he had only known for the first three years of his life – combined. Luckily, he wasn't in the position to say so.

He smiled when he thought of his mother and father.

He always smiled when he thought of them together. His dad – though one would not guess it when seeing him speaking of the world in general – had a deeply romantic soul and proved that every time he looked at his wife. No matter what, he always smiled happily when he saw her and she smiled back (it was a very special smile reserved only for him). Their love – albeit undoubtedly having gone through several challenges over the years of marriage (he could only guess about those for they'd never fought in front of their children, not even when they had become adults themselves) – was still as strong if not stronger than the time they'd met each other as teens.

In fact, it was said that while being apart for several years, his father hadn't met with any other woman. However, his father had never said anything about this and there were hundreds of rumours concerning Jess Mariano coursing through this town of which some were more ridiculous than others:

Why on earth would his father replace body lotion with glue or create a fake murder scene in front of a shop? Well, this was only topped by some story about an overaggressive swan which was just ludicrous.

He had always liked the stories Uncle Luke used to tell. His favourite one being the one of the miraculously self-repairing toaster while his sister liked the story in which their dad had been pushed in the lake. What he'd liked the most about the stories was the affection they had been told with:

Despite they'd called each other "nephew and uncle" until the older man's death, even blind people could see they were like father and son… The more he thought of it though, the more he realized why they never called each other father and son:

They'd been more.

They had confided in each other, they had been friends, too. His own relationship with his father couldn't be compared to theirs for they'd met when his dad had already been a seventeen year old teenager, an individual with views, opinions and most importantly life-experience. His father had cherished Uncle Luke, loved and respected him, but he had been there for him just as much as the other way around.

When Uncle Luke had died, his dad had not only lost a father but also one of his closest friends.

He looked at the grave of his uncle – grandfather, whatever – and felt a sad twinge inside of his stomach. He could only imagine what his dad had to feel whose eyes were fixed on the gravestone:

_Lucas "__Luke" Danes-Gilmore_

_1960-2039_

_Beloved Husband, (Step)Father and Uncle_

_Thank you_

"Come on, Lucas. Let's go home," his father said, putting softly a hand on his shoulder.

At that Lucas Mark Gilmore followed his dad towards a certain diner where the town would hold their fourth wake in honour of a man who had positively influenced all of their lives.

* * *

THANK YOU! I've loved all of your reviews and comments.

12 people alerted my story, 8 even put it on their favorite list... Thank you very much! That makes me happy.

lilliwhite, Miss Goali75, ., Jeremy Shane, LiteratiLady, Kaz010, Acute Delirium and jessLOVEr: Thanks for reviewing so regurarly!

I also want to thank watram, MountainLass, savedprincess85, Polly, Lomiel, Kate and Nancy who've reviewed once or twice.

So, once again I'm asking you to review my story. And this time I have a request to make: Please tell me which story you liked the most... I'm curious about that.

* * *

.: I guess the title wouldn't have helped much, would it?

* * *

Is anybody interested in an other story collection such as this? I would like to write some more, especially Luke/Jess related... I was thinking of a follow-up which would be a bit shorter than this one. It would contain more angst, because the title would be _Wish you were here. _Are you interested?


End file.
